I still don’t know what I was waiting for / And my time was running wild…
I had to do a lot of work to this image to make it look like what it actually is, an old photo of Rod Stewart and David Bowie with a bottle that looks suspiciously like Blue Nun Liebfraumilch. It’s only recently that at least some rockstars have once again allowed themselves to be photographed with wine. This comes after a long period when it was considered very uncool for them to be seen with the drug made from grapes compared with the drugs made from leaves (cocaine) and flowers (cannabis), which they often waived around like big flags. That is, unless the rockstar in question had a record contrast that specified (s)he would never be seen using intoxicants of any kind in a public place. And if real rockstars did admit to liking wine, then it was always something very expensive and either French, Italian, or more recently Californian. The truth about their wine consumption was often (surprise, surprise!) very different from the image they projected. For example, I know that Madonna was a big fan of the powerful, medium-dry Riesling ‘Three Stars’ from Gunderloch in Rheinhessen/Germany, but Ms Erotica never acknowledged this publicly for fear of looking uncool and damaging her image of being dangerously sexy. In contrast, the movie actor and director Kevin Costner came out about loving Gunderloch’s ‘Three Stars’. He danced with wolves and with Riesling!
So, for a long time there was a huge gulf between what Rockstar Wine Guys (and Gals) were recommending and drinking themselves – they were nearly all seriously into Riesling! – and what Real Rockstars appeared to be drinking. This photo dates from before that period, that is from another era of cool. Thankfully, we seem to be moving back in the direction of the 1960s early 1970s when rockstars often had a wonderfully relaxed relationship with wine, and Riesling was something many of them did. And what Rieslings do today’s rockstars drink? Well, quite a few of them are fans of the wines from Martin Tesch of Langenlonsheim/Nahe in Germany, because Tesch is a big rock music fan, has many friends in the rock music world and took the trouble to introduce them and their friends to his bone dry Rieslings. I have to say, that every time I drink a glass of Tesch Riesling ‘Unplugged’ I get a jolt of energy like that which good rock music gives me. And when I taste one of his masterpieces, like the 2012 St. Remigiusberg, then the hairs on my arms stand up like they do when I hear the first chords of Nirvana’s ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’.
Here we are now; entertain us / I feel stupid and contagious…
