Right around the time of that disastrous Zinfandel experience, I married my husband, Roman. He had joined the Army in January 2001, and after training, was stationed in Germany. I finished up one more contract at APT and then got to join him in Wiesbaden, Germany.
Just before our 1st wedding anniversary, Roman deployed to Iraq, and I had to find things to amuse myself. One thing I did was go to a USO-sponsored wine dinner with my friend Robin, and my life was well and truly forever changed. This dinner was hosted by wine expert, educator, and all around life enthusiast, Erich the Red. He led us through a menu of typical Hessische German foods, each course paired with a wine produced by the owner of the Straußwirtschaft hosting the event. He was the best way to get to know wine, food, and Germany in general. Robin and I had a great time, and both ended up buying way more wine than planned. I remember talking to Roman shortly afterward, telling him all about the trip, and us agreeing that now that we owned a whole six (6!!) bottles of wine, we must be wine people now.
Rheingau Riesling dominated my world. It wasn’t always sweet, in fact at first I rarely had anything more than half-dry (halbtrocken). I even got my Mom to try and enjoy these wines. I tried the German version of rosé and fell in love as well. So dry, so delicate, and so good with food. Roman returned to Germany, I got him to meet Erich and try these wines, and the love grew in earnest. By the time we packed up for our end of tour return to the US, we actually had to negotiate a wine shipment. All sorts of Rheingau Rieslings, Spätburgunder Weissherbst (rosé of Pinot Noir), a few German reds, and our first forays into French wines–Alsatian versions of the same grapes.
We were hooked.
Wine Nerd (in progress) 