Raise Your Glass - Wine Tasting in Germany

It's been a rough week, so let's talk about beverages!

Under 21 year olds, go home.

With all the hype about German beers, everyone seems to forget that Germany also makes wines.

Really good wines!

But I'm no wine expert (As you may have guessed from the adorable pink blog with sparkles, I'm more a Cosmopolitan girl).  Luckily, we were invited to join another group from our university on a wine tasting tour!
Not only did we get to learn about how wine is made and other cool facts, but we also got to taste-test some cool wines!

But first, we got to see rockin' palace that would make the French a bit envious.  Schloss Ludwigsburg aka Ludwigsburg Palace was built by Duke Eberhard Ludiwg in 1704.  It was originally built as a hunting lodge and expanded into the Duke's residence, who used it as a way to: a) escape his wife and b) shack up with this mistress.  Stay classy, Germany.

Thanks Wikipedia!

Eventually the Dukes became mini-Kings of the region and the palace was expanded some more.  The palace features original interiors that show off the latest styles of Baroque, Rococo, and Empire.  Unfortunately, we weren't allowed to take pictures inside.  You you'll just have to imagine it.

The tour was really great and I would highly recommend going!  It was absolutely beautiful inside!

PS. You can also get married and have your reception in the palace.  This pleases me greatly.

Emily and her old roomie, Amy!

We then took a bus to one of the region's biggest wine manufacturers - Württemberger Wines!  We first got a tour of the factory and learned a bit about how they make wine!

In the shipping room, filled bottles are ready to go!

Hi Emily.

In the filling room, giant sound-muffling cubes are
hung from the ceiling to protect the workers!

Freshly bottled and soon to be labelled bottles of red wine!

This machine is filling up the bottles!

The bottling room was a giant complex!

The loading docks with pallets of wine! 

Ready to move!

The Württemberger Wine Co-op is really enivormentally
friendly - they collect and reuse old wine bottles.
Here is one of the cleaning rooms.

Very nice, Emily.

Plastic cartons of wine bottles are cleaned and sanitized
 to be used this co-op or other wine makers!

All the wrappings and labels are ripped off before
the bottles are cleaned

Wow!

You can't take her anywhere!

Shiny cleaned bottles are ready for filling!

Almost all of the wines made in this co-op are made with screw-on caps.  Although back in the U.S. we still cling to the idea that claims that corked wines are of higher quality than screw on caps, the majority of wine makers in Europe are switching to screw-on caps.  The wines last longer and taste better, plus the chemicals or taste of the cork doesn't go into the wine.  And of course, it makes it a lot easier to open another bottle!

These huge metal tanks/silos hold
the fermenting wine.

The room was super chilly!
Special piping systems keep each container
chilled to the exact degree it needs to be.

The metal silos replaced this horizontal ones from the 1980s
which are much, much harder to clean and maintain.

The best wines (also the most expensive)
are kept in traditional barrels.

This co-op uses three types of wood for their
barrels: a German wood, a French wood,
and an American wood.
It's very cosmopolitan!

Emily, barrel rollin'.

This pipe system warns workers if the
fermenting gases become too dangerous.

After the long tour, we worked up a healthy appetite for snacks and wine!  We were each given three wine glasses, some delicious cheese, and some hearty slices of thick German bread.  After everyone was seated, we were ready to go!

Oooh la-la-la, so fancy.

Two glasses for wine, one for water, and some paper to
write down our favorites!

German wines are named by their grapes and the WZG Co-op also takes special care to label their wines so buyers know what they should be used for.  For example, their Edition Gourmet edition is supposed to be paired with food (and you should pair it with food, it's very dry by itself!).

We first started with 2 white wines:  a Rivaner (a recent hybrid of Riesling grapes and Madeleine Royale grapes), which was fruity and sweet, and then a Riesling, which was made for the German asparagus season.

I prefer white wines to red ones and I loved both of these!  I bought the Rivaner for a classy dinner night we had later in the month.

We then moved onto 2 rose wines.  To quote my favorite new YouTube comedy series "My Drunk Kitchen" (yep, it's a show about a girl who tries to cook while tipsy) - "Rose is like white wine...but pink!"

One was a Lemberger Weißherbst, which is made for beginning drinkers, which is a red wine that is chilled down to a rose.  It tasted like strawberries and cherries!  The other wine was a Trollinger, which is the beloved grape of the Swabian people (and my Dad, too!).  This wine is heavier, more sour, but still with a sour cherry flavor.

We then finished with 2 red wines.  I'm not a fan of red wines, but these two won me over!  Both were of "higher" quality, produced in wooden casks.  One was a Spätburgunder, fermented in a large oak cask.  It smelled like forest and vanilla.  The other was a costly Lemberger that was stored in a tiny cask of mixed wood.  It was meant to be paired with meat or as a manly after dinner drink.  It smelled like smoke, coffee, and cigars.  Despite being a complex and heavy wine, it was really good!

That's all well and good, you may say, but how can I become as wonderfully cultured as you, my humble blogger?  Luckily, I have the answers!

My Wine Tasting Tips:

1) Get some good wines or ones you wanted to try!

2) Make sure you ate food before hand.  You don't want to fall off your chair!

3) Have an extra glass filled with water.  Lingering tastes from the wine before can distort your perception of the new wine.

4) Eat some cheese or bread in between! This also helps clear your palate, plus you can decide if that wine tastes well with food.

How to taste wine:

1) Swirl it in the glass - this lets the wine "breathe" so you can smell the tones in the wine.

2) Yep, it's true, smell it before you sip it.  Try and make out scents that you might be able to taste later.  I thought this was total B.S. but it's actually true - each wine has a unique smell and body.

3) Take a sip, don't slurp, and let it sit in your mouth before swallowing. The point is to enjoy the craftsmanship of the wine - each grape, each barrel was selected with care to produce that distinct flavor, so enjoy it!

And finally,

4) Enjoy the Wine. If you don't like it, you don't have to finish it! :)

Up Next: We head to Cyprus for an unexpected tropical trip!