Salzburg Christmas Markets and Fortress Hohensalzburg

Posted on December 24, 2014 by waywardwine

In case Christmas Eve gets too festive, I’m posting this now.

142 days of travel and we have winterized ourselves. Our EU Austerity Drinking Tour leaves icy, sober Dachau for the Austrian border and glorious Salzburg! Home to Mozart, music, and…salt.

EU Austerity Map SalzburgOur train digs into the Alps. We slide on icy rails, the brakes burn in our nostrils. But we can’t care, the words “winter wonderland” are painfully apt.

Austria Train SnowWe arrive late in Salzburg and wrench our war-torn luggage for miles across an unending sea of horrible, horrible cobbles.  Somehow, we are freezing yet sweating.  Hours later and a bit lost, we find our hostel, dump our bags, and head into the historic core.

Then we find the greatest Christmas Market booth of all: Champagner Platz No 1

CHampagner Platz SalzburgBut no! Bad Salzburg! This is an AUSTERITY drinking tour, where cheap and local matter. Stop tempting us with Moet!

We cross the river and enter the largest market beneath Salzburg Cathedral:

Christmas Market SalzburgShops glow with useless but adorable wood-knackery, pastries, and knitwear. But our goal looms above us: Salzburg Fortress, Europe’s largest: Hohensalzburg:

Salzburg Fortress HohensalzburgWe forgo the lift (too expensive) and climb the most troop-demoralizing cliff-side. The air thins, the wind whips. We sing the Monty Python Holy Grail theme to revive spirits, but doubt we will ever make it.

Salzburg Fortress StepsFinally, we arrive on top of the world.

Rooftop SalzburgThe snow-clothed Alps surround us. We go inside, but every window captivates us with that view.  Around the other side, we can see the city: small and jewel-like below:

Salzburg BelowRooms gradient from stark, white washed arches to the intricate, interior palace. Here archbishops ruled with a secular and religious sway over the Holy Roman Empire.

Grand Hall SalzburgFurther into smaller and smaller rooms, every corner now fills with gilt wood and grape motifs.

Intricate Salzburg PalaceThe museum retains arches from the Romanesque period, where even then they had no lack for flamboyance:

Romanesque Salzburg FortressRooms of Renaissance armor and daily wares seem exciting. But then we catch the last tower tour. A short clamber takes us to the top.

We stuff ourselves on doughy snacks at the Fortress Christmas Market (of course). Darkness somehow turns the city aglow as we stumble back home.

Our hostel plays the Sound of Music, while snow falls heavily outside.  Don’t worry, Austrian wine will be in the next post.

 

 

 

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Jack Creek Cellars, Estate, Pinot Noir Reserve, Central Coast, California, 2006

Posted on December 22, 2014 by waywardwine

Let’s break from our EU Austerity Drinking Tour for something closer to home. This Thanksgiving our family took a turkey break and visited Pinot Noir country in the Willamette Valley of Oregon.  Stops at Archery Summit, Angela, Lange, and Troon all highlighted the many forms and clones that Oregon Pinot could take on.

Archery SummitDifferences abounded but a taught line of bright acid unified them all. Also bodies never went bigger then medium, colors were clear and medium, and flavors tended toward wild cherry, mineral, clove, and minimal oak.

Then we went home.

Turkey leftovers led to watching the movie Charade. While Audrie Hepburn saw past Cary Grant’s charm-laced lies, we opened something completely different:

Jack Creek Pinot Res 2006Jack Creek Cellars, Estate, Pinot Noir Reserve, Central Coast, California, 2006

After a day of zippy, lean Oregon Pinot our guests had brought a Pinot Noir from home. Home is Paso Robles, California.

Jack Creek’s goal since 1997 has been to create New World Pinot Noir, which is smart, because Paso Robles is consistently hot, dry, and sunny, especially compared to anywhere in the Old World.

jack creek mapSo how does Jack’s 06 Pinot fair?

Appearance: It is clear…probably. Honestly, imagine purple ink, fat legs, and minor particulates from the last eight years.

Aromas: Clean, bold aromas glow of just-made, hot, black cherry jam, nutmeg, and light mocha.

Palate: No sweetness shows off a nice, moderate acidity, minor, dusty tannins, but a surprisingly unobtrusiveness, albeit warm, medium plus alcohol. This all creates a medium plus, plump, body: nothing near the lean Nor-westerners we had earlier.

Flavors: a powerful hot iron cuts across my palate. This is the steel of alcohol from a hot climate.  Tobacco, and a forest of wood flushes well with twangy black cherry. The fruit drops out a bit, but other flavors last a long length.

Conclusions: Location, location, location.  Jack Creek’s Reserve Pinot Noir 2006 redefines Pinot Noir.  It reminds us that place can obliterate what we assume a grape type should taste like. Our ignorance is the fault, not the wine.  Jack’s Pinot is sleek, hot, and purple: just what one should be from Paso.  Moreover, it manages to retain enough freshness and acid (even after eight years) to balance itself into something easily drinkable and pair-able.

Those lean Oregon Pinot’s we had that day were equally good, just different, because they must be.  Nevertheless, Jack Creek made an outstanding, Pinot Noir (5 of 5). Bravo.

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Dachau

Posted on December 18, 2014 by waywardwine

Today we sober up from the Munich palaces and an unpronounceable Scheurebe white wine with a visit to Dachau’s concentration camp.  We link a train and shuttle and then shuffle through snow and suburbs.  Then the duplexes stop abruptly at a wall.

Dachau HomesI give my wife our camera: partly because she has a knack for dispassionate documentation, and my dollar store gloves suck.

Our guide takes us to the gate. A touching speech details the long, suffering walk, the harassment, the end of 32,000 lives.

Dachau EntranceOnce he finishes, cameras pop out and people pose, smile, and flash peace signs in front of the Arbeit Macht Frei gate…ah, memories…

We enter the cold courtyard, where Nazis roll-called and gave Jews and other minorities their daily forced labor.

Dachau CourtyardInside, we tour the entry hall, where Nazis stripped people of everything that made them human. Placards, display cases, and videos detail the meticulous, sterile horror.   At least they didn’t smoke:

Dachau Rauchen VerbotenHimmler founded Dachau to house political prisoners and rebellious clergy.  A building of dorm-like rooms soon imprisoned important prisoners of war thought worthy of ransom. This was about as fancy a stay as one could get.

Dachau Fancy DormsWe trudge back to the courtyard and discuss the various memorials.  One depicts the arm badges used to identify the prisoner as Jewish, Jehovah’s Witness, communist, criminal, emigrant, race polluter, and idiot. However, it still omits pink triangle worn by homosexuals…times change too slowly…

Dachau Memorial to deadWe head to the now empty rows of where dormitories filled a field. One was reconstructed.

Dachau BunksBodies crammed in here and used communal toilets and wash basins. There were no heaters. We cross the compound, as prisoners once did, their one moment of daily reprieve. Trenches and electrified fences provided one the easiest “escape”.

Dachau Fence

We reach the gas chambers and furnaces, where countless bodies were disposed of.

Dachau CrematoriumBack in the compound, we find memorials erected by various persecuted faiths.

Jewish Memorial DachauJust behind them, sits a Carmelite convent.

We head back to the museum, which overwhelms our small group with endless placards detailing statistics, personal stories, and displays.

Exhausted, a setting sun tints our departure with the first warmth we have seen all day.

Sunset DachauBack in high school, when I watched videos of the graves and bodies, one classmate broke into uncontrollable laughter. This history is so extreme, so surreal, that as reflex we find it hard to believe.  However, visiting empty Dachau in the dead of winter makes it all too real.

Next post, we shed Germany for Austria, Mozart, and fantastic wine and beer.

 

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Scheurebe Wine from Bruder Dr Becker, Rheinessen, Munich, Germany

Posted on December 15, 2014 by waywardwine

With the holidays in full swing, we need to escape from the joy/stress of shopping, family/work parties. So Wayward Wine will up posts EU Austerity Drinking Tour in the following weeks.

Last Monday’s post, Munich’s Residenz palace managed to glow through winter.  We slighted some rather nice beer (mainly out of frustration with the monopoly of big producers). So let us give Germanic wine a chance.

Munich lacks water bodies to make wine this deep into the continent. So this white comes of the steep banks of the Rein, in the heart of Germany’s western wine country: the Rheinhessen:

Rheinhessen MapAmongst Riesling, Müller-Thurgau, and even Pinot Noir, 3.5% Scheurebe vines grow here. Dr. Scheu created his silly-sounding crossing just for the Rheinhessen’s sandy red soils. Let’s see…

Brüder Dr. Becker, Scheurebe (grape), Kabinett, Prädikatswein Gutsabfüllung, Rheinhessen, Germany, 2010 bio €10.00

Bruder Dr Becker ScheurebeThis is a Kabinett classification: basically a main harvest, reserve wine, meant for cellaring in your “cabinet”. So game on:

Appearance: A bright, crystalline lemon color.

Aromas: Youthful, powerful aromas of grapefruit, black currant, and steel carry.

Palate: A smidge of sweetness tames prickly acidity, mild 10.5% alcohol, and a nice, medium body.

Flavors: medium intense grapefruit, lime jelly, and slate mineral wind into a dry finish of medium plus length.

Conclusions: Becker’s sugar balance is perfect. This Scheurebe grips and grabs attention with an excited but light touch.  It is very good quality (4 of 5). Scheurebe, who knew? Now if only I could pronounce it!

Next post takes us to Dachau’s concentration camp. Here’s a moment of lightness beforehand:

Tracy Milka Cow

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Munich: Residenz to Bavarian Royals and an EU Austerity Drinking Tour

Posted on December 8, 2014 by waywardwine

The 140th straight day of travel ticks over with my wife and I (still married) jetting across Germany into Munich.  Strasbourg charmed us with its bilingual, Alsatian wines, Christmas markets, and history (post here). What will the land of lager bring our EU Austerity Drinking Tour?

EU map New York to Munich Day 140We leave late from a fabulous AirBnB apartment in the burbs. Steely snow blankets a gray city.

Munich River View IcyWe pass neoclassical buildings and monuments.  The walk warms us up and soon we discover town squares and golden architecture that almost compensates for the lack of sun.

Golden Munich ChurchWe tumble into lovely Christmas markets that feed from one square to another like a snake with bulges.  The town clock churns with wooden automata.  But unlike Strasbourg or Luxemburg, everything is meat. This is Germany. We finally find a café with sad cheese sandwiches.

Fueled but still cold, we visit the Royal Treasury, which packs its walls with bedazzling finery from Germany’s earliest kings.

Munich Crown  As well as the most bling-tastic, miniature knight and horse ever seen:

Crazy Munich HorseAfter a few hours of getting overwhelmed by toiletries, crucifixes, and odd cups, we enter the Residenz: Germany’s largest palace, where Bavaria’s Kings ruled, dined, and wallowed in their own opulence in 130 rooms.

The audio guide takes us to shell-bedecked Grotto: one of ten courtyards:

Munich Grotto ResidenzAround the corned and down the stairs we expect a small hallway and find what can only be described as the largest Renaissance hall north of Italy:

Residenz Antiquity HallThis Antiquarium fills endless niches with (mostly real) busts and statues from Duke Albert V’s eclectic collection.

We traipse through further rooms of extravagance, from Baroque, to Mannerist, Neoclassical and beyond.

Munich gives me HeadspinThere are porcelain cabinets made out of porcelain…to hold porcelain. Bedrooms were built for visiting popes. A hundred dish gold place-setting.  Everything is so atrociously ornate, busy, and obsessed with minutia.  Gold Place settingWith winter’s sun setting we find the Cuviliés Theater, an utter gem of a space, where Mozart once held a few gigs. Cuvilies Theater MunichWe have the fanciest-pantsiest hangover imaginable.

We head out to get groceries for dinner, drink, and oh yes, a cow:

Tracy Milka CowThis being the home to Oktoberfest, we grab three Munich beers. They are all Hell beers (literally “light-colored” nothing to do with damnation) but of different kinds (Lager, Tegernseer, and Weissbier.

Munich beerThey are all good, refreshing, yet don’t register much to our, as then, untrained beer palates. I also forgot to take notes. Drinking in the palace was enough.

Next Monday’s post purges our fabulous hangover with a trip to Dachau.

 

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