In Renate's diary, this day has the clever heading Wein und Weinen (wine and tears) so, even though the translation doesn't quite live up to the original, here it is.
We started out fairly early, walked to the train station, and took the S-Bahn to Radebeul. This time the door in the S-Bahn actually opened, and we arrived an hour early to the Erlebnisweingut Wackerbarth, a winery a bit north of Dresden on the south slope of a mountain near the river. Everything was still closed, but we could walk around the beautiful grounds (click the link above for a video tour and other info)
At 10 o'clock sharp our guide, a spirited middle-aged woman with excellent English, arrived and welcomed us with a glass of Sekt (sparkling wine) made from the grapes grown in the winery. While we enjoyed the refreshment, (James and I had grape juice, which was very good) she explained the process of the Flaschengärung (bottle fermentation) in some detail. One member of the group kept interrupting and tried to explain to her how it works, but she would have none of it. Renate was especially surprised to learn about the removal of the yeast, which is done using a flash freeze process.
Thus fortified, we set off for our walk. First, we looked at the crest of the Wackerbarths, which is a combination of two family crests (below is a photo).
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| Wackerbarth Family Crest |
Then we walked up to the Belvedere and learned more about the history of the winery. When the monks from further west came to Saxony several hundred years ago, they started growing wine on the hills there. This was surprising because Dresden is very far north and before global climate change, it was quite cold that far east and north. But the wide river and favorable south-facing location supported a warmer microclimate suitable for growing wine grapes.
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| Belvedere at Schloss Wackerbarth |
Our guide told us that the 2024 harvest will only be 15%-30% of normal because of a hard frost following a very warm early spring. We also learned that there's a legal requirement to not use fertilizer and to use very little water so the grapes send their roots down deep. Also, the walls holding up the terraces were made by hand using the dry stone technique, and to repair or replace them is very costly.
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| Vineyard wall |
We arrived at a picnicking area with an awning where we had a wine tasting. The weather was actually fairly warm, the cold and rainy weather from a few days ago in the Sӓchsische Schweiz was now a distant memory. Our guide explained how to taste the wine: smell, twill, smell, taste (3 sips). James and Renate had the grape juice again, which was quite excellent. Then, as a special surprise, our guide brings out a basket of Brezeln (large, soft pretzels) with butter! Everybody had a great time (likely in part because of the alcohol infusion) and we walked back to the winery's Gasthaus, where they served us a huge lunch. Renate was very happy with the gnocchi with ratatouille. In general, it's gotten much easier to eat vegetarian or even vegan in Germany, a big difference from our hike 10 years ago. After lunch, the group broke up with the plan to reassemble in the evening for a final dinner.
Back at the hotel, we had a little nap and then we're off to get tickets to the Caspar David Friedrich exhibit (which Renate later manage to throw away by accident!) and then we visited the Grünes Gewölbe (Green Vault). The Grünes Gewölbe is a mindblowing exhibition of the treasures that August the Strong accumulated and exhibited in several "themed" rooms. The excellent audio guide helped us appreciate what we were seeing: ivory carvings, silver, red glass -- the treasures of that age! There's also information about the restoration process -- Renate was surprised to learn that most of the rooms had been almost completely obliterated during the bombing of Dresden in WWII and have been painstakingly restored.
Still dreaming of treasures beyond dreams, we returned to the square in front of the Frauenkirche, where we met up with the rest of the group and walked to the Sophienkeller for our final dinner. The Sophienkeller is well regarded as an excellent restaurant even among locals (Renate's cousin said it's very good!). It's all in a cellar, with several large rooms, all filled with excited revelers. Below is a picture of our table, showing the artwork on the walls and the appetizer offering.
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| Sophienkeller appetizers |
We started with a delicious spread of breads, quark with chives, and the traditional lard. But as dinner progressed, it became clear that the noise level was not conducive to conversation, and the large round table made it impossible to talk to anyone but your neighbor. To make matters worse, we ended up one dish short (most likely because a vegetarian took a non-veg dish -- though we should still have gotten the right number of dishes). Our guide had to complain repeatedly before he finally got his meal. With the noise we all started to wilt, but we had to wait for the Eierschecke, a cheesecake-like dessert, and then headed back to the hotel.
At the hotel, we had one final meeting where we said good-bye to our hiking companions.
