And a sausage too!

It is not a German tradition to eat a sausage at a wine tasting, but we have the Alaska Air National Guard to thank for the now traditional eating of the sausage during sampling of the finer wines at the Mayschoss-Altehahr Winery. You may remember that Terry and I had signed up for this tour when we first arrived. The tour was arranged by Tom, a retired German Air Force Colonel now working in the housing office on base, he is quite a dapper gentleman and has been setting up guided tours for over 20 years.



We met at the winery at 1500 on Saturday afternoon. Our guide, Otto was running late, no problem, Tom was able walk us thru the wine cellars and kept us facinated with wine history and facts until Otto arrived a half an hour later. Once we completed touring the wine making facilities we were guided to another winery in the co-op. A private area in the cellar with a huge wooden table was set for 16 complete with candles, baskets of bread and steaming sausages. When it was all said and done we counted 20 bottles of wine on the table, 10 different wines, 2 bottles opened at a time, 1 for each end of the table, we sipped, swirled, discussed and either dumped into the urns or consumed. We started out with the whites which surprised us because the region is noted for the red grapes. We did switch to reds, there was only one that Terry and I enjoyed, a 2004 spicier red, different from the usual sweeter wine the Germans favor.

One of the more interesting facts of the day, this particular winery sells 60 percent of the wine right out of the cellars. That is huge! No worries about distributing this wine, bottle it and they will come.


As I said, this is a a cooperatively owned winery and is listed in the top 100 wineries of Germany, also the only co-op in the top 100. Something else I learned, there is a patron saint for wine, St. Rokus, who knew!


















The harvest was completed at the beginning of November, the grape vines are terraced throughout the hillside canyons . The river Ahr runs thru the town it is really a beautiful area. You might also like to know that the butcher that provides the sausage for the NATO personnel that tour, is a National award winning butcher nothing but the best!

Oh, I can hear the questions............. of course we bought some wine, 6 bottles of a gold medal award winning Spätburgunder with a special label provided by a local artist that lived in the area in the 1800's, a picture from his collection is featured on the label each year.

love and miss you all