Up North

April 8, 2007

I travelled north, from Jakarta to Taoyuan, Taiwan where I am going to teach for a week at the International Center for Land Policy Studies and Training (ICLPST). The flight was very comfortable in the business class of China Airlines. The menu I chose was all seafood. Boiled baby prawns with tomato and lettuce leaves as entrée and fish and prawn satay in ginger light soya sauce with Shanghai noodles as main course. On top of the wine list I found to my surprise a German Riesling from the Mosel-Saar-Ruwer, my home region in Germany where also Trier, my hometown, is located (www.trier.de). Home sweet home, and out of this melancholy, I asked for it.

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It said: 2005 Spaetlese, but I could not resist! The description claimed the wine is “rich, buttery layered with flavours of orange zest, Asian pears and golden delicious apples, with a subtle, smoky back note”. I could not taste any of this. For me it was “sugary” and the steward was so kind to let me have the second white wine on the menue: a Chardonnay from the US. 2006 White Mare Russian River Valley (Sonoma County), depicting a white horse on the label, not my type of label but what could I do. I did not know the winery. There was also a red (Cabernet Sauvignon), 2005 Daisy Ridge with the same white horse label.

The second red wine was from Italy, a Chianti Classico 2005 from Coli in Tuscany. After a couple of glasses of the Chardonnay, which I quite liked, I moved on to the Italian wine and stayed with it for the rest of the flight. By the way, the service was great at this flight, so many nice stewards and stewardesses, unbelievable. I can only recommend China Airlines. The wine list, though, could be changed. OK, I did not try the champagne, a Drappier Brut which got 89 point from the wine spectator. There are much better Rieslings from the Mosel or the Saar to choose from. I would also replace one of the US wines with an Australian Shiraz maybe or a Merlot.

I watched a movie, read in my Tim Winton book (The Turning) and arrived in Taoyuan in no time, well rested, fed and happy.

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The Treverer

February 4, 2007

The first time the river Mosel is mentioned in a written document is the account of Gajus Julius Caesar in his De Bello Gallico, IV in 55 B.C. where he describes his battle and the subsequent victory over two German tribes, the Usipeter and Tencterer. Around the same time we also learn about the original settlers in the Mosel river valley and around Trier, the Celtic Treverer.

“The Treverer are cleverer” sounds a line in a popular song of a local rock music group called “Leiendecker Bloas”. But not only that. The Treverer were feared by the Roman invaders as well.

Treviros vites censeo. Audio, “capitales” esse; mallem, auro, argento aeri essent.

This is what Marcus Tullius Cicero wrote to a friend during Caesar’s war against the Treverer in about 55 B.C. In a free translation that reads as “better avoid the Treverer; they go for your throat. I wish those guys would rather work as silver and gold smiths”. The Romans in fact had some troubles in controlling the Celtic population of the Mosel valley. In 69/70 A.D. the Treverer revolted against the imperialists from Rome but were defeated again. The Roman general Petilius Cerealis did not lose his composure in battle despite the fact that his cavalry was already wiped out, his camp fortification destroyed and the walls overrun by the fierce Celtic fighters from the Mosel.

But over the decades that followed the Celtic swineherds were transformed into vintners and the people thanked the god of wine – Sucellus – for this. The Treverer were known to be hungry for fame, quarrelsome and rowdy. They were also known to be big drinkers, more so than even the Germans. The many drinking competitions they held are ample proof of their favourite pastime. The ones who could not drink were despised as weaklings. That people could call themselves lucky if they got away alive from those fierce drinking competitions, was a common notion. That’s how it was: The good old days. These times have long gone and modern man does of course some drinking here and there but we are all more or less domesticated in some way or another. We go to work 5 days a week. We do sports in our free time, watch TV, send sms and e-mail, write blogs and so on.

Joseph Roth in “The Radetzky March” describes the changes at the turn of the 19th to the 20th century but his description can certainly also be applied to earlier times and ages.

Everything that grew took long to grow
and everything that ended took a long time to be forgotten.
Everything that existed left behind traces of itself
and people then lived by their memories,
just as we nowadays live by our capacity to forget,
quickly and comprehensively.

Schale

Terra Sigillata bowl found in Trier (Karl-Josef Gilles: Bacchus and Sucellus, Briedel 1999)

Vinum vires is what the Romans said, wine gives power! My suggestion for the day: open a bottle of your favourite wine and enjoy the Sunday.

Bene tibi sit “Wohl bekomms” or To your health, salute, cincin and so on

————————
Reading tip: Edgar Christoffel: “Mosel und Wein – Stimmen aus zwei Jahrtausenden”, Trier 2003

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Sunday Lunch with Riesling from the Saar River

January 29, 2007

What a wonderful weekend this was. It goes without saying that I had “to weber” some of our food; to be precise it was my task to barbecue Sunday’s lunch. As our house guest David is vegetarian it meant that I had a lot of “veggies” (as Australians commonly call vegetables) to prepare. But we had also fresh fish, a Pomfret as it is commonly known. There are two varieties, the white and the black pomfret. The Indonesians call the former “Bawal Putih”. White pomfret has an excellent flavour and is commonly used for a dish called Ikan Asam Manis (sweat & sour fish); needless to say that it is very delicious either steamed or grilled.

The White Pomfret

The White Pomfret (from Kaarin Wall “A Jakarta Market”, page 53)

First, I grilled the vegetables: potatoes (after they were boiled), onions, capsicum, green peppers, and zucchini. The fish was marinated with black olives and capers and wrapped in aluminum foil to keep it moist. I put it on for only about 20 minutes. The food was delicious and we had the right wine to go with it.

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My Weber with the vegetables

We drank one of my last two bottles of Van Volxem Saar Riesling 2003. This wine estate is located in Wiltingen (www.wiltingen.de), a village about 20 km south of Trier at the Saar River, a cool climate region belonging to the Mosel-Saar-Ruwer area. The lower Saar is a very small winegrowing region but has some of the best Grand-Cru locations for Riesling (for instance Schwarzhofberg) on which its reputation is based.

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The 2003 Van Volxem Riesling

Van Volxem is the oldest estate in the Saar. Formerly a monastery, the estate belonged to the Van Volxem family for four generations. In 1999 it was purchased by Roman Niewodniczanski of the beer brewing Bitburger family. Based on old tax records, many excellent and sometimes forgotten vineyard sites were newly acquired when the estate was expanded. Most of the more than 20 ha are planted with Riesling vines. The first vintage was bottled in 2000 and ever since elegant wines with excellent ratings were produced under a system that avoids the German “Praedikat system”. Unfortunately, the estate’s internet presentation is still under construction. Therefore, we have to wait a while longer until you can visit www.vanvolxem.de.

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A typical Saar vineyard

The soils of the Saar are based on blue-black slates and very stony. The vineyards are located at steep southerly slopes. The key for the Van Volxem Estate’s success are late harvests and low yields, environmental friendly practices (no pesticides) and low input cultivation techniques (no chemical fertilizers), relying in the cellar on natural yeasts fermentations and maturation in oak barrels. The 2003 dry Riesling blend has 12% alcohol. It was the first vintage producing dryer wines. 2003 was a ripper year as regards the weather and this might explain the higher than usual alcohol content of the 2003 vintage. Some of the wines are produced from more than 100 years old vines. The 2003 Riesling is medium bodied, had a buttery aroma and displayed some sweetness. It showed some mineral characteristics, had a fruity nose and a long finish. It is terrible that I have only one more bottle left of this excellent vintage (www.riesling.de). Wines do not age well in the tropics, even if you keep them properly refrigerated. There is always the odd power failure which destroys your well thought through cellaring program.

The drinking of Saar wine reminds me of my youth when my father and his friends used to go hunting in Schoden, a village further upriver. Often groups of hunters would descend on the Saar villages after successful campaigns and dine in one of the old rural inns (Gasthoefe). When at home with my mother in Trier, we often set out for long walks in the forests covering the hills above the Saar. From there one has a magnificent view of the lovely countryside.

From Schoden

Vineyards in a distance

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The Saar Valley, the village of Biebelhausen in front on the left side of the Saar, behind the terroir “Ayler Kupp”, and to the left further back the famous village of Ayl.

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Sunday Lunch the Mosel Way

January 22, 2007

The weekend came and went like a storm, exhausted I am sitting on my desk at Monday lunchtime and contemplate about the good times gone by. As always, we had great food on Sunday. My wife Margit prepared a “Wehlener Specksalat”, which translates into English as “Wehlener potato salad”. With it we had a wonderful fresh water trout. The wine we enjoyed with the food was a Riesling of course, a 2003 Kaseler Riesling from the Reichsgraf von Kesselstatt Estate.

The settlement of Wehlen/Mosel is part of the district of Bernkastel-Kues, a small but famous town in the Mosel valley, about 50 km downriver from Trier. Wehlen has one of the best vineyard sites among the Middle Mosel producing outstanding Riesling wines. The world renowned site is called “Wehlener Sonnenuhr” (Wehlener sundial). The vines are cultivated on steep slopes (50%) on an altitude between 110 and 190 meters above sea level. The soils are very stony and are classified as Devonian slate soils. The wines produced are elegant and deep, full-bodied and fruity.

Wehlen goes back to Roman times when Celts established this village. The settlement has a tradition of more than 1100 years of vineyard cultivation and wine production. In a historical document of 874 the Arch Bishop of Trier requires the vintners of Wehlen to deliver 10% of their produce to the local church. Only the vineyards allocated to local monks were excluded from this tax. Unfortunately, the website of Wehlen is only in German but you might still visit and enjoy the impressive pictures (www.wehlen.de).

Back to the food. The “Cookbook of the Mosel” (Author Gisela Allkemper, published by Wolfgang Hoelker) was given to my wife many years ago as a Christmas present by my mother. And ever since, Margit has referred to it and experimented with its recipes. Wehlener Specksalat has become our favourite potato salad. Here is how you prepare it:

Wehlener Specksalat

Ingredients: 1 kg of potatos, 2 table spoons of oil, 5 ts of vinager, 2 onions, salt, pepper, a pinch of sugar, 75-100 grams of smoked streaked bacon

Peel the potatoes and cook them, still warm, cut them into cubes and mix them with the dressing; cut the beacon also into cubes, fry it in a pan and add it with the fat to the salad; keep the salad warm, mix it from time to time. Serve it with backed or fried fish, and/or sausages or other fried meats.

We drank one of my last bottles of ‘2003 Kaseler Riesling’, Reichsgraf von Kesselstatt – The Riesling Estate (www.kesselstatt.com). Kasel is a small village at the Ruwer River, some 10km from Trier on the right hand side. When we were at high school my brother Wolfgang used to earn some pocket money by working for family vineyards during harvesting season. That’s hard work because the slopes are steep, the weather often wet and unfriendly. He reported about the great hospitality of the vintners and the fun he had with the co-workers of the labour crews employed for picking during vintage time. I never got to it and regret this now at the tender age of 52. Another lost opportunity.

Wine Pub and Garden of Reichsgraf von Kesselstatt in Trier

The Wine Bar and Garden of Reichsgraf von Kesselstatt in Trier

Reichsgraf von Kesselstatt maintains a beautiful website (www.kesselstatt.com) in three languages; German, English and Chinese. The latter made me very happy. Having lived in China and Chinese speaking cultures for more than eight years, it is always a pleasure to see Chinese characters. I guess that many of the Chinese tourists visiting Trier, the birth place of Karl Marx, also belong to the customers of the estate. Let us hope that many visitors from the Far East become lovers of wine from the Mosel river and its many vineyards, wineries and wine estates. Kesselstatt, by the way, owns also a vineyard in Wehlen (according to the website 0.3 ha) in the location “Sonnenuhr”.

“Neumagener Wineship” replica in front of the Kesselstatt wine bar

The “Neumagener Wineship”, replica in front of the Kesselstatt Wine Bar.

Similar to the “village-system” of Burgundy, Kesselstatt produces regional wines. The fruit for this Riesling is sourced from around Kasel. Kesselstatt itself owns two holdings there (top locations Nies’chen 4.4. ha on a 60% slope and Kehrnagel 1.8 ha on the valleys finest sites). Some of the vineyards belonged to the St Irminen monastery. By the way, I grew up at Irminenfreihof 5 in Trier (the neighbourhood was locally also knows as Brittany), next to the monastery located in the middle of the city of Trier.

The Wine: 2003 Kaseler Riesling dry
This full-bodied fine Riesling shows all the characteristics of the typical Mosel Rieslings. It’s very minerally (because of the slate soil) and fruity, depicting pineapple, peach, apple and lemongrass characteristics. It’s is also well balanced, dry with a lingering finish. The alcohol level is rather high for a Mosel Riesling (12.5%). But 2003 was a most astonishing year. Throughout the year temperatures were higher then normal; the year was also much drier. Because of these favourable conditions growth was exuberant. When temperatures hit the 40° Celsius in August sunburns were widespread. The grapes ripened quickly and picking started much earlier along the Mosel river and its tributaries then in most years. The fruit picked was usually healthy and showed aromas which were not depicted in other years. Unfortunately, I have only another two or three bottles left of this treasure. I will reserve it for special occasions with more Wehlener potato salad and fresh trout.

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Wine Mythology

January 11, 2007

There are various mythical stories about the god of wine in different cultures. For the Greeks it was Dionysos, for the Romans Bacchus and for the Celtic Treverer in the Mosel river valley it was Sucellus. Sucellus was not the god of the wine consumer as were Bacchus and Dionysos, but the god of the grape and wine producers, the vintner, the cooper, and the winemaker.

The picture below shows this Celtic god as he is usually depicted, with a sledge (or long-shafted hammer), grapes and some barrels. The statue was found in 1976 in a Roman villa near Kinheim in the district of Bernkastel-Kues, 50 km from Trier downriver on the Mosel (www.bernkastel-kues.de). You can see it in a wonderful book by Karl-Josef Gilles with the title “Bacchus and Sucellus” . The book gives a wonderful insight into grape and wine cultivation along the Mosel river during Roman times.

Sucellus

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Why this blog?

January 9, 2007

Mosel river in Trier

The Mosel river in Trier from “Zur Lauben” side

Finally, my blog is up and running. Thanks to the help of Ms. Vera Jasini Putri from my office, I beat the deadline which I had sat myself earlier. This is my personal blog far away from my professional work. Therefore, it will not deal with liberal democracy and issues related to change management but it will be about wine, my favourite drink, and culture.

Wine and culture are at the heart of many civilisations. They were the determinants of where I come from, the lovely town of Trier in the Mosel river valley with its more than 2000 years of culture of vineyards and wine making. I grew up in this corner of Germany, rich in historical monuments, abound in stories about times gone by, and it’s small town culture at the most western edge of the Federal Republic of Germany.

Wine and culture are also at the centre of the lives of a select few pioneers in the Central Victorian High Country at the Upper Goulburn River in the new world in Australia where the wine industry has become an important engine of growth and rural prosperity during the last couple of decades. It is here where 10 years ago my wife Margit and I established a small vineyard: Two Hills Vineyard in Glenburn, Victoria. And it is here where I will retire someday in the hopefully not too distant future.

Following the example of Banjo Paterson’s famous poem “The man from snowy river“, a ballad praising the resiliance of the rural folk in the High Country of Victoria, I have chosen the title of this blog.

In my home town Trier the Mosel river is the dominating force and feature of the city and the region. Another one are the very steep slopes of the benches where even before Roman times “vitis vinifera” the ordinary grape producing vines were cultivated by the indigenous celtic settlers of the Treverer tribe. Today the town which claims to be Germany’s oldest city is a major tourist destination. Please visit it if not in person at least on the net (www.trier.de).

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