Wanderings

Southern Tirol

schona — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 09:01:00 GMT

Bonjourno!

Well, last weekend I was lucky enough to go to South Tirol in the very north of Italy with some of the students from school. It's a very interesting region as it was originally part of Austria, and only became a part of Italy after the First World War. About 60% of the people there are of Austrian/German descent, and the other 40% are Italian. Both German and Italian are spoken there, and all the signs and even names of the towns are in both languages, so it's a really interesting fusion of cultures. The South Tirolians I have spoken to don't identify themselves as Italian, and are proud that their region has a degree of autonomy from the rest of Italy.

Scenery-wise it's a really spectacular area. It's just in the southern part of The Alps and so is surrounded by very steep mountains, and there are lots of castles and vineyards and huge chalet-style houses high up in the hills. Stayed in Meran which is a gorgeous wee city, and has been a holiday destination for hundreds of years. This particular weekend there happened to be the annual International Meran Wine Festival and Culinaria, which was fantastic.

Was €85 for a day ticket (about NZ$170), but was worth it for the experience and the opportunity to taste so many good quality European wines. There were thousands of them, and it was huge and a beautiful venue. There were also cheeses, salamis, olives, chocolate, coffee, etc, etc, so it was a pretty full-on day for the taste-buds. Of course it was all in the name of research!

Two of the students come from South Tirol, so they showed the rest of us around, took us to a restaurant up in the mountains, and we visited the family winery of one of them. It was amazing - Florian's house is over 500 years old and his family have been making wine there for seven generations. Fantastic wines too!

Another excellent weekend, and only three more to go in Germany so will keep you posted!

Ciao,

Shona

Gallery: South Tirol

schona — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 07:01:00 GMT

Gallery: Black Forest

schona — Thu, 6 Nov 2008 09:02:00 GMT

A White Weekend in the Black Forest!

schona — Wed, 5 Nov 2008 23:01:00 GMT

Hallo! Well, harvest is over now so I've just had my first weekend off in 7 weeks! Of course I had to make the most of it, so went down to the Black Forest to see Biggi and Andreas. It had been snowing there for a couple of days during the week but was now fine, so it was perfect - a winter wonderland!

Went for a snowy walk through the forest which, in true German style, included a stop at a conveniently located restaurant for coffee and cake! I almost set off the alarm system in the historic church on top of the hill when I went wandering up the front to check out the sculptures - right past the sign that says in German not to do that! And the two old ladies on the reception of the nativity display were proudly telling us about how they had been getting visitors from all around the world and as far away as Freiberg, which is actually only about 45 mins away! Needless to say they were impressed to learn that they had a visitor all the way from New Zealand.

Went to a town called Triberg right in the heart of the Black Forest, which is very nice and has its own waterfall and a load of shops selling cuckoo clocks! I had never really thought much about cuckoo clocks before, but they are actually pretty cool and you can get them with all manner of things going on along with the cuckoo. I also saw the worlds largest cuckoo clock, which is pretty big I have to say.

We managed to also find a rottweiler in Rottweil; home of rottweilers - both the dogs and the people from that city apparently. So altogether another lovely weekend, and was great seeing Biggi again and Andreas this time too. I'm off to Southern Tirol in the very north of Italy this weekend, so should be good too. Will write again after that.

Hope all are well, and ka kite ano!

Shona x

Gallery: Autumn in Württemburg

schona — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 22:23:00 GMT

Gallery: Vintage & Things

schona — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 06:58:00 GMT

Onion Cake and Neuer Wine…

schona — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 06:48:00 GMT

...a Swabian tradition for this time of the year! Onion cake is kind of like a rich onion quiche, and neuer wine (aka young wine) is wine that is still fermenting, taken straight out of the tank yeast, bubbles, and all! Actually it was very good and I think I’ll export this tradition to New Zealand next vintage. Apparently the trick is just to make sure you are working outside the next day!

On this particular occasion though, fermenting wine and onion cake at Oliver’s house was only the beginning of my discovery of things German. For later on that evening, I was introduced to a piece of equipment that I had never known existed, that is common-place in German homes, and that I am now wondering whether I can live without. It is the… Egg-Boiler! Yes, a machine to boil eggs. And when I asked why you need a machine to boil eggs, the answer was: “Because we are German!”. Since then I have also discovered machines for peeling asparagus spears, cutting butter into segments, and frying eggs in either love-heart or star shapes!

Vintage is going well, and last week was probably our busiest week. There are lots of interesting wine-making experiments happening, as well as new and unfamiliar grape varieties coming in. I got given a batch of Pinot Noir fruit to play with, so I am doing a warm ferment in the room that everyone uses to dry their gumboots out in, which just happens to be 28 C! It’s causing a few raised eyebrows, and I have had people follow me when they see me wandering out of the cellar with the plunger – just to see what I’m up to!

The other trainee, Rob, is from New Zealand also, so we now have the cellar staff saying “Gidday Mate!” in the mornings instead of “Guten Morgen”. And one thing I have learnt is the answer to a question I had never thought of before: “How many winemakers does it take to change a light-bulb?” The answer is: Two and a forklift – I’m sure you can figure out the details!

One of the viticulture guys here has an old bike stashed away in the basement which he kindly offered me the use of, so I have been taking it out at the weekends to explore the local area which has been great. The villages are quite close together and there are really good cycling tracks connecting them, so it’s a nice way to get around. It’s quite hilly though and I did end up up the top of one of the wine mountains when I got lost one day! The leaf colours here at the moment are amazing and the vineyards are just starting to change colour. In a couple of weeks it should be spectacular with all the different varieties each displaying a different shade of autumn.

Yesterday in Heilbronn (the nearest city; only 10 mins on the train from Weinsberg), there was a ‘Jazz and Shopping’ day. Usually everything is closed on Sundays, but the shops were all open and there were stages set up all around the city centre with various bands playing, and it was very good. The market-place and town-hall in Heilbronn are really cool, and it was the perfect place to sit in the sun with a cold Weiss Bier and people-watch. The people here are really friendly too, and it doesn’t take long before you’re talking and ‘Prosting’ with whoever you happen to be at the same table as.

Well, I think that’s all for now. Take care, and Auf Weidersein from Weinsberg!

Cheers,

Shona x

Life in Weinsberg

schona — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 06:38:00 GMT

Guten Tag!

Well, I've been in Germany for about a week and a half now, and I've settled in and already started making wine! The first week I mostly spent getting over the plane trip and completing formalities, which involved registering at various offices around town and signing lots of forms which I have absolutely no idea what they say!

I eventually got my work visa on Friday, for which the local foreigner office wanted to charge me another €50 for the visa fee which I had already paid in NZ. Herr Müller (the visa guy) and I discussed this situation - him in German and me in English - and I showed him my receipt from NZ which he promptly took a copy of. He then had a lengthy telephone conversation with someone, after which he issued my visa and I was free to go. Of course I was proud of myself, not just for saving €50 but also for 'winning against the beaurocrats' and in a foreign language to boot! However later when I was telling Oliver, my boss at the wine school, about my success I found out that he was actually the person on the other end of the phone call, and that the only reason Mr Müller had issued my visa was because Oliver had promised him that the €50 would be paid!

Of course I've been acclimatising too - not just to the heat and the humidity but also to the amount of food I'm expected to eat! It's the 3-course meal at lunchtime that I had to work on, followed by dinner again at 5.00; eat it then or miss out! Anyway, I've trained and can now happily scoff the whole shebang for lunch and be getting peckish again around 4.30, so it's all good. The canteen lady is my friend too; she gave me a chocolate at brekkie this morning. Although we can't speak to each other, food and charades go a long way towards transcending the language barrier!

Weinsberg itself is beautiful. There is a maze of tiny lanes on the side of a hill, and the village is dominated by the 'mountain' after which Weinsberg is named. At the top is the ruined 'Castle of the Faithful Women'. The story goes that centuries ago the villagers were held under siege in their castle, and when they were finally forced to give up, their benevolent captor told them that he would kill all the men, but that the women were free to go with whatever they could carry on their backs. So being strong and faithful German women, they picked up their husbands, put them on their backs, and carried them down the mountain to freedom!

At the weekend I went down to Schramberg in the Black Forest to see Biggi, our old homestay student. It was great to see her and I had a lovely weekend. It's a really beautiful area and on the Sunday we went down to Lake Contance on the Swiss border. Spent the day wandering around Radolfzell and the city of Konstanz, which was amazing. The centre of Konstanz is made up of narrow cobbled streets lined with medieval houses and inns and churches, and many of the buildings have old frescos painted on them. Check out the photos in my gallery and you'll be able to see what I mean; it was incredible.

This week I've been working at the wine school, and learning how to use some of the flash winemaking toys they have here. There is one other Praktikant (trainee) in the cellar, who is a guy also from New Zealand. So the Keller-meister has been training the two of us up for when vintage cranks up next week. We're going to be running about 300 ferments I think, and it will be mine and Rob's job to look after them, so it should be pretty hard-out. The staff are all really nice though and most of them speak good English too. The wine school is like a maze; I'm still getting lost in it. And there are lots of interesting things going on. Deep down in the cellar there's a distillation plant set up to make schnapps, so I'll try and get the low-down on that at some stage too!

Well, that's about all my news for now, so I'll sign off. Hope everybody is well and happy, and I'll write some more stuff soon.

Prost!

Shona x

Gallery: Lake Constance

schona — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 03:06:00 GMT

Gallery: Weinsberg

schona — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 05:20:00 GMT