Vineyard Visit - August 12th

I finally met up with Magali today and spent the entire day driving around Rheinland-Pfalz visiting and obtaining samples from three different vineyards. Originally I had thought that we would only visit the vineyards to check them out, but because harvest is so early this year and because the vineyards are so far apart, we decided not to waste the good weather and take samples. For lunch we stopped off in a town just north of Landau. Since it was a Sunday most small restaurants were closed, but we found a restaurant that was part of a winery and open for service. I decided to be adventurous and try a traditionally Pfalz lunch which was Sau....something. The meat was in the shape of a steak, but was definitely not a solid piece of meat. I could tell that it was a mixture of many small meat pieces stuck together and stuffed inside of a roll. I didn’t realized what I was eating at the time, but I later found out that I was eating many different parts of a pig stuffed inside of a pig’s stomach. I could have had the explanation wrong, but that is what I understood. Considering how gross that sounds, it was actually pretty good. When you think about it it’s not that different from a sausage, which is a whole bunch of meat stuffed into an intestine…. :)

That evening I met up with Christian in Mainz at an annual wine tasting put on by young winemakers in the region. I think his sister has helped organize this event in the past, and it seemed to be a success again this year. Christian and I had planned to leave for France the next day, so I brought all my stuff with me as I stayed with Christian that night at his parents’ house in Bechtheim. When we arrived at his house it was too late for a tour, but from what I could see in the dark his house was pretty damn amazing and the winery was right next door. Such a great set up. I definitely want to come and visit again so that he can show me around.