Discovering gems in Germany, France and Italy

The purpose of this three-week working vacation was to visit selected properties in Germany's Rheingau and Mosel and taste their wines, to do the same in Alsace, to sightsee in Bavaria, and Lindau Island on Lake Konstanz, and finally to enjoy a few days in the Dolomites in Italy's far north, an area we always seem to return to. We ended up in seven countries. How could this be possible?

Well, Germany, France and Italy, that's three. We crossed and recrossed Austria in transit. Four. Driving around on a non-wine Sunday in the Mosel, we kept seeing signs marked Luxembourg. That would be another country to add to the roster of total countries seen. Why not? So we dropped down into Luxembourg and just happened on a nice little French restaurant called Rotisserie Ardennaise. Steak au poivre, fresh escargots, oh yeah!

Leaving Lindau, a pretty town on the lake, we checked the map, and guess what? It's only about 30 Ks to Liechtenstein. I mean will we ever get another chance to visit this country? Probably not. Down we went to Liechtenstein, passing through a sliver of Switzerland en route, and there we were, gliding through tiny towns sandwiched between two towering spines of mountains, and that was Liechtenstein. What was it like? Who knows? We checked the architecture ... hmmmm, mighty interesting ... filled the car with gas, smiled at two women, one of whom smiled back, and country No. 7 of the trip went into the books.

Our trip began in the Mittelrhein and Rheingau, home of the great Rhine wines. The memories came flooding back because it was there, 49 years ago, that I and my fellow G.I.s used to take the Rhine cruise, from Bingen up to Cologne and back, drinking the finest wine we'd ever tasted. Unfortunately, I didn't take notes in those days, but later I found out that what we were drinking were bottles from the 1953 vintage, one of the greatest of the 20th Century.

Twenty years later, which would be 1977, I was back, this time as a writer, and I had the good fortune to be taken in tow by Riquet Hess, the front man for importer Peter Sichel's wine empire. Could history repeat this time? Why not? Riquet Hess, still active, carrying a resume that now includes vineyards on five continents, took charge of us again.

It was a strange déjà vu. In July of '77 I sat in one of the drawing rooms of the great estate of Schloss Vollrads, Germany's most ancient wine property, and interviewed the old Countess Matuschka and we talked of so many things...the glorious wines of Vollrads, the property itself, how she had survived as a person of Jewish heritage during the Hitler years. We talked for hours.