German Wine

I set up a little Christmas display on the library table in our family room and initially included a couple of bottles of wine on it. David suggested putting some "old" bottles that we received over fifteen years ago when we left Germany. So I went to the basement and searched through the wine rack to find them. I was looking for two specific bottles, and ended up finding a third with sentimental value, so they all went onto the display table.





The first two bottles, pictured above, were given to us when we left Germany by our friends, Anelie and Ernst Probst. Frau and Herr Probst were my good friends when I lived in Germany for six years, and I still speak with them on the phone a couple of times a year. I remember we went for a farewell dinner at their house, and Herr Probst went to their cellar and brought out the two bottles--they were fifteen years old at that time--and eighteen years more have passed since then. The wine, of course, is not drinkable--but they are dear to us. I recognize the towns where each was made--Alsheim and Guntersblum. Guntersblum, especially, is familiar, as there was a major wine fest there every year and David and I attended it a couple of times.

The third bottle I was surprised to find on the wine rack, and reported to David that we still had a bottle of Strubel wine. Herr Strubel was a kind man and a vintner who David got to know. We visited with him, and he showed us his vineyard, and met him one afternoon at his little summer cottage. He had plans to market his wine in the U.S., under the label, "Pink Lion," but things never worked out.



Here is a close-up of the label on the bottle. Herr Strubel passed away while we still lived in Germany, and his wife arranged for someone to write us a letter in English, letting us know. She did not speak a word of English. David still remembers stories that Herr Strubel told him about his time in the army during World War II. He was evidently pretty happy to be taken prisoner and put in a POW camp!

I think these bottles may stay out on the library table even after the Christmas decorations are put away.