Did you see us or this bizarre vehicle somewhere, somehow between Monday, May 5th in Key West/FL and May 16th in New York Wine City (NYWC)??? Above is my first glimpse of our Riesling Whale – my nickname for our bizarre vehicle – when I arrived in Key West on the first of those dates to meet up with the RRT2 team. It really is very hard to miss us if we pass you on the road or if the Riesling Whale is sitting in the same parking lot as your car. Wines of Germany USA are the only people around who have something like this, as some of you know, because you’ve been in the belly of the Riesling Whale with us.
This second Riesling Road Trip was rather easier than the first one back in June 2014, when we drove from Venice Beach/LA to NYWC in just 9 days, which required one thru the night drive of 25 hours from Phoenix/AR to Austin/TX. Sure, this years trip was also a serious piece of work, and that’s how we all treated it, but we wouldn’t have signed up for roles in this Road Movie if we didn’t all love Riesling & Co.
We reached out to many hundreds of enthusiastic Riesling fans and converted a many of you who were long attracted to German Riesling (also Spätburgunder, Silvaner, Weissburgunder and Scheurebe), but were hesitant. We couldn’t cure everyone out there who’s suffering from Riesling Deprivation Syndrome (RDS), because we are regular guys and gals, not wine superheroes. On the plus side, along the way many beautiful things that we didn’t seek out suddenly wandered into our field of vision, like these birds at gas station we were refueling in Florida. We won’t forget either them or the German Riesling & Co. fans in a hurry.
For the child in me, seeing the Saturn V moon rocket at the Kennedy Space Center was one of the highlights of the trip. No less than the Disney cartoons I loved as a child, Nixon’s visit to China and the Watergate scandal on TV, it helped shape my image of America. It strikes me that with the appearance of the cool Jungwinzer or young winegrowers and their innovative wines, German Riesling fits into America’s success culture better than it did back then. Importers: we need more of these wines in the US!
OK, I didn’t to meet Mickey at Disney World/FL, but that didn’t alter or diminish an important aspect of the message we were bearing. Yes, German wine can be subtle and sophisticated, but it is often just great fun to drink. Riesling Road Trip 2 confirmed my conviction that Riesling has no problem fitting in with the exuberant, in-your-face, fun-loving aspect of America, as expressed at Myrtle Beach/SC in the picture below. There’s still plenty of work to be done to inform the many Americans who still think it is just a sweet, foreign beverage that it is so much more than that!
My apologies that I find it impossible to pick a single image which adequately conveys either the historic beauty of Savannah/GA and Charleston/SC, or the rapidly developing food and wine culture of the Southeast. For that reason I picked an image of a German wine I discovered while I was there. I already knew some of the top wines produced by Jungwinzer Stefan Meyer of Rhodt/Pfalz, but was completely amazed by his basic dry Silvaner bottled in Liters (roughly a quart). It is a joyful, but modestly priced wine!
Maybe I’ve been a little bit unlucky with Washington DC. I always enjoy my visits, but these brief glimpses were never enough for me to connect with the city emotionally. However, I have realized – like the city’s inhabitants – that you can eat and drink well there, also without throwing a ton of money out of the window. The Riesling Spirit seems to have bonded with DC, even if I haven’t yet. I will try again until I succeed.
As you can see from the above photo towards the end of Riesling Road Trip 2 heavy clouds rolled up and just a few hours after this picture was taken it began to rain heavily. Thankfully this didn’t hold us up to much, but it literally dampened the spirits of those we had invited to be our guests. Riesling rightly has the image of being a spring and summer wine, but choose well and there are wines which also work in driving rain like that in which I photographed our two drivers, Mike (left) and Danny (right). Without them we wouldn’t have rolled so effortlessly northwards, but they also entertained us and sometimes challenged us with unexpected thoughts. When you’re on the road as much as we were it’s important to laugh and you’ve got the time to do some serious thinking. Thank you guys!
During Riesling Road Trip 2 I finally gained something approaching an overview of the Southeast of the US and I realized that it is a natural match with Riesling’s profoundly refreshing personality. It ought to be one of the best markets in the world for German Riesling and this will not be the last time I visit these states with that message. Thank you everyone who took us seriously enough to come along and enjoyed!
