Weingut Flick

A dear sweet Fabio met seven of us at the international meeting point of the Frankfort airport and drove us to the Hotel Radisson in Weisbaden.

There are 11 Americans on the trip, three of whom I had met before today. There are 45 people in total, who are invited from Spain, the UK, Hong Kong and various other countries. The 45 of us will spend time together until Sunday when the Europeans will head to the Mosel and the Nahe and the Americans will travel to the Rheinhessen and the Pfalz.

As of today, we are exploring the beautiful Rheingau.

Once at the hotel, most of us checked in our rooms and took a brief one-hour power nap.

At 15:45 (that’s 3:45 to me), we reconvened in the lobby of the hotel and bussed it to Weingut Flick in Florsheim.

Absolutely incredible, we were shuttled off of the bus only to be met by the gorgeous German Wine Queen, Anika and glasses of pink bubbly, Spatburgunder I presume, but not sure.

From there, the operations manager of the Weingut, Joachim, took us down to his cellar to taste us on his 2010 Charta Riesling, inform us with the history of the vineyards as well entertain us with mood lighting.

We were then taken into the large building upstairs on ground level to learn about German Wine Facts and Figures from a brilliant Ulrike Lenhardt, head of the Wines of Germany organization that invited us on this trip.

Afterwards, an unbelievable meal was served of Wild Boar and other accompaniments.

In case you believe I am rushing my words, it is because I am trying to get ready for Day 2, to begin in 10 minutes.

More later, when I come back from our day at the Geisenheim Institute.

Gesundtheit!