Saar Riesling Sommer, then to France!

Alright, get ready to be inundated by updates, cause I have stable internet and an evening in to catch up!

On Saturday it was time to go to the Saar Riesling Sommer, which is a wine festival centered around a small river that feeds into the Mosel, the Saar. Before I go any further, I should explain something. Take a look at the map of our trip. You see how we're kind of zigzagging around Europe instead of following a smooth or cohesive route? It's because of this festival. We booked our flights for when we would get into Dublin, and when we would leave from Frankfurt. Once we had those dates, Oliver said: "Oh hey, I think that the Saar Riesling Sommer festival is during that time. You should see if you can make it to Germany then." And thus the first concrete plan was made for our trip, and everything else was booked around that wine festival. It was worth it.

We woke up on the late side and had a calm breakfast before we headed to the first of the wineries. There are 10 wineries along the route, which, in addition to presenting their own wines, hosts between 1 and 5 guest wine makers who present their collection. It is not possible to make it to all of the wineries in one day. Thankfully, for the diehards, it’s a two day festival, but since we had Oliver helping us choose which wineries to go to and which ones we could pass on, we only did one day of wine festival (which is probably all I could have handled anyway). We went to four wineries, and didn't even go to all the winemakers at each winery. I think by the end of the day we tried close to 100 wines, almost all of them Riesling. It gives you an appreciation for the diversity of the grape, and it also helps you identify exactly what you like about Riesling. For example, I now know that if a Riesling is marked as "Trocken," which means its dry, it's pretty much guaranteed that I won't enjoy it. And only about 50% of "Feinherb" wines really do it for me (medium-sweetish). Kabinett's are usually right up my alley, I love a good Spatlese, and Auslese's are my happy place. The point is, I love sweet Rieslings. For me, that's where that wine really shines. There are other wines I enjoy more when I'm going to drink a dry white, but I don't think there is anything in the world as good as a 10-year old Goldropfchen Auslese (Not sure I've actually had one of those, but I'm generalizing from what I've learned), for me, that wine is pure heaven.

Oh, Riesling, King of Grapes. How I love thee!

Once we finished at Saar Riesling (read: our taste buds were dead and our noses were numb), we headed over to the home of Marc and Jacqueline. Marc is a manager at the Hospitien, where some of my very favorite Rieslings have come from. The Hospitien also has the oldest wine cellar in Germany, with part of it dating from the Romans. Unfortunately, we weren't able to make it to the Hospitien during our short time there, but we were able to spend the evening with Marc and his lovely wife. Marc also has a business where he collects and sells old wines. What this means is that we ate some yummy antipasti style food and drank some REALLY OLD WINE that was fascinating and a real treat to enjoy. By the time we headed back to our place we were all ready to sleep, but we had to be up on the early side the next day, cause it was time to drive to Burgundy!

We left Trier around 9:30, piled into Oliver's mom's car, and started the drive. We drove through Luxembourg on the way to Burgundy, because, apparently, gasoline is absurdly cheap there (along with some other things, and groceries are cheaper in Germany, so you'll see a fair amount of Luxembourgian vehicles at the grocery stores in Trier). So we got to add another country to our list! We got to Dijon around 1 and went to the home of Oliver's host parents from his exchange student days. At the home I met and kissed twice (once on each cheek) Claude and Monique (Oliver's host parents), Fred and Paca (Oliver's host brother and his partner), Paca's three children, Quentin, Lily Rose, and Jules, who are all delightful, and Bertie (Paca and Fred's 9 month old baby girl, and Oliver's Goddaughter). The house felt full. We sat down to lunch around 1, where we ate lots of delicious food over ~ four courses, and drank some delicious wine. I think lunch was officially over around 5. Then we all kinda lazed around for a couple hours. Then at 7 it was time to start drinking the aperitif, which was a weird old Spanish fortified wine. Then dinner was at 8, and we all sat around the table till around 11. Wowza.

We stumbled into our bed at Claude and Monique's (which was ROUND and Jay forgot to take a picture of) and I slept FANTASTIC. I didn't move till 11 the next morning (I should add that I got exposed to gluten during the Saar Riesling Sommer. I get careless when I've got that much wine in me. So excess sleeping was inevitable). The next morning I took a fantastic shower (almost compares with the flowerbed shed). Claude and Monique have one of those big rectangular showerheads that rains straight down on you. It was GREAT. Then Nina and I went to pick up the rental car that I had reserved for me and Jay. After a little wondering around the train station we had the car, a Fiat 500, which I will now happily say is a piece-of-crap car. Nina went back to her car and we had a little fun finding each other, but then we headed to the grocery store to get lunch for us and the boys. One of the things that we got was jamon perseille, a Burgundy specialty, which is a terrine of chopped up ham and parsley, held together with gelatin. You then buy it in slices. I was sure it would be too gross for Jay, but the ham is so dense that the gelatin barely shows. It's perfect for sandwiches. All you need is a chunk of jamon perseille and a baguette and you are set.

My handsome husband, with the Vineyards of Burgundy (A UNESCO world heritage site) in the background.

The guys finished working around five, Jay and I packed an overnight bag, and we headed out in our respective vehicles, following Oliver through the Burgundian countryside, windows open (our car had no air-conditioning), gaping at the old buildings, the sporadic but impressive rock formations, and the regiments of vines stretching for miles around us. Oliver took us up to one area that houses what might be the most expensive and exclusive vines in the world, Clos de Vougeot.

Clos de Vougeot

After that we headed to Fred and Paca's for a lovely dinner and lots of wine. They have a beautiful big yard with lots of fruit trees including but not limited to mirabelles (a bite-sized yellow french plum which I've become heavily addicted to and will be very sad to leave behind in France), figs, apples, pears, and peaches. They also have a small chicken coup with a couple of hens and a really nasty looking rooster. I discovered that among all the French speaking, and a couple of glasses in, Jay starts speaking in French indiscriminately, even to me. At one point he turned to explain something to me and he started talking to me slowly in French, as though speaking slowly might help me understand him. I gave him A Look. It took him a minute to figure out why.

Once we decided to call it a night, Jay and I crashed in Quentin's bed, and Oliver and Nina slept in Lily Rose's bed (the children were with their father for a couple of days). Around 5 am Paca's rooster and the neighbord rooster got into a crowing contest. One of them has a much higher crow than the other, so it kinda sounded like an older rooster was trying to teach a younger rooster how to crow. It was great fun and went on for about 20 minutes before I managed to fall back asleep. I woke up around 11 and Jay and I headed back to Claude and Monique's. We stopped at the grocery store, Jay went back to work and I spent most of the afternoon drifting between reading and napping (remember, I'd been glutened). Monique had gone north for next two days to visit her daughter and grandson, and Claude had plans to have dinner at a restaurant with a friend, so Jay and I happily settled in for a quite night and salad for dinner. Claude's response when he saw this: "Salad!? That's all?" *look of horrified disgust*. Then, his friend ended up not showing for dinner so he came back and ate a can of tuna over the sink and had a glass of rose (we offered him some of our spare food but he declined). We crashed on our comfy round bed, watched netflix, and slept wonderfully.