News from Middle Earth - Issue 2

Sheepshead´s Blog

Edition Nr. 2

Somewhat delayed due to a heavy workload caused by the creation of Young-foxes.com- finally Edition 2 from News from Middle Earth.

The theme for this edition is very dear to my heart- wine and just about everything that relates to this topic. How I got to being a wine-lover is kind of interesting. In my youth in Holland, I probably never drank a glass of wine ever, but like everybody else had my glass of Heineken beer, while hanging out with my pals.

My emigration to the United States somewhere in the mid seventies changed this all. There I was suddenly confronted with bubbly stuff in cans, which was labelled - "beer". For most Europeans a horrifying experience, so alternatives were very welcome in those days. Luckily I was employed by a large wine company in San Francisco and had, in the course of my work , to do a job-buying a vineyard- in Napa Valley. That particular exposure and the economic fact, that the company internal store offered a 40% discount on retail prices, got me hooked on wine. And honestly- I never looked back- after moving back to Europe with its tasty beers- beer wasnt an issue anylonger either.

So now I am living in the Palatinate- pre-dominantly wine country, biggest output of all states in Germany and probably also having the best climate for growing wine. To get yourself acquainted to the Palitinate- here is a 2,5 minute english video of the area just round the corner, where I live-

About 70% of output is white wine, mainly riesling, which stuff is not my thing. I am a red wine drinker and my "heavy" favourite here is Dornfelder, a dark ruby coloured red, which as a "young" wine, tasts a bit like a gamay and the wines from the Fleury area in France. Fruity and pleasant- just the way I like it.

This years crop is gonna be -OUTSTANDING- although we had a long and cold winter, there was hardly any damage to the vines. Blossoming was, due to good wheather in late spring, very early in June, but the crop volume will be 15-20% below average, due to a cold spell later in June. However the quality will be great, since all conditions going forward were optimal. The "weinlese" - harvest- started therefor 10 days earlier than normal. The grapes simply are a bit less "juicy", but soaked with minerals and all good stuff that one requires for a quality wine.

To close with here a picture from the Bio-Winery of Franz Braun in Ranschbach on the more southern part of the "Deutsche Weinstraße"- the route that runs from Bockenheim in the north to the french border in the south.

Nowadays about 80% of the crop is harvested by gigantic automatic harvesting equipment- only the vineyards in the higher areas and Bio wineries like that from Franz Braun still harvest by hand. I visited him a while back and can assure you that the quality is excellent and his "Dornfelder" great.