Back from a Rhine River cruise with Tauck from Amsterdam to Basel and eight additional nights in Germany and Luzern. I usually didn't know the vintage of the wines we had onboard ship and vintages were unlisted on most of the gasthaus wine lists so specifics are very sketchy. The overnight in Rudesheim on the Rhein with visits to two wineries the next day did not occur. To shorten the story, the collapse of a vital section of train tracks in Germany while attempting to expand tracks in southern Germany with a underground tunnel operation disrupted thousands of train journeys for passengers. My train from Basel to Frankfurt could only go as far as Baden Baden, then a bus to Rastatt, and another train which didn't go to Frankfurt Hauptbahnhof. I wouldn't get to Frankfurt train station in time to pick up my rental car on Sunday (they close at 4:00 PM on Sunday) so I spent a night in Mannheim instead of getting the rental car and driving to Rudesheim. Took the train from Mannheim to Frankfurt the next day riding in the Kinder Car (mother with 4-month old daughter and a father with a two-year old son in my compartment.) Got back on schedule by driving to Heidelberg and missing out on Rudesheim.
Some wines along the way:
dry Von Kesselstatt Riesling:Medium straw color, very strong scent, fulsome, with minerals and acidity, slightly tart apple note with some "bite" on the finish
In Heidelberg at Knosel Café, Conditorei and Restaurant: Durbacher Spatburgunder Rose' Qualitatswein Trocken (dry) (Pinot Noir)
from Weingut Schworer in Baden Pretty color closer to orange than pink or coral, refreshing on the palate with pomegranate and slightly under-ripe strawberry notes. Dry, a touch of tartness but balanced, well made. (with a slice of plum cake)
My favorite rose' of the trip was with lunch at the Luzerner Hof Hotel (I stayed at Hotel Rebstock) Zweifel Zuricher Pinot Noir, AOC Zurich, 13% abv. Delightful. Pale coral color, strawberry notes, dry but fruity at the same time, balanced, speaks of the Pinot Noir grape.
Sorry David B. but my favorite white onboard MS Inspire was a Sauvignon Blanc wine from Sancerre, Loire Valley, France. It was so popular that the somm served it two nights in a row. I asked to see the bottle and wrote down the vintage and name but don't seem to have it in my little memo book. Somewhere along the way, perhaps at JFK Airport, I had a Villa Maria Sauvignon Blanc from New Zealand--very refreshing with grapefruit notes and a tingly sensation in the mouth, nice acid streak, reminds me of a cool stream on a rocky river bed.
At Vino Volo in Detroit Airport on return trip I had a Sanford Pinot Noir that was nice but greatly overpriced by the glass. I don't remember Vino Volo prices being marked up so highly in the past. Had the wine and a nice cheese plate with Manchego, Cheddar and Pecoirno with toast triangles, fig jam and almonds. There may have been a bleu cheese also.
No impressive red wines on this trip.
Besides the disruption of train travel in Germany, I survived having to rebook my flight to Amsterdam because my flight from Raleigh-Durham to JFK was delayed two hours and I only had two hours in JFK to connect to the overseas flight. I spent an hour on the phone to Delta help line and got cut off three or four times, speaking to a different agent each time, before successfully booking a later flight to Amsterdam. Then my suitcase arrived in Amsterdam 24 hours late and was delivered to my hotel ten minutes before I was to check out and four hours before boarding my ship for the cruise. Still--I really enjoyed the Rhine River cruise and my visits to Heidelberg, Triberg in the Black Forest, and Luzern, Switzerland. On the cruise we had wine tastings in Strasbourg and Riquewihr in Alsace and dinner in a palace near Cologne with a string ensemble providing dinner music.