Wagon Wine Ride

Our church organized a wagon wine ride at a vineyard for tonight, and I signed up with my friend Kathy, although I didn't know exactly what it entailed. It was basically a night of riding in a wagon through a vineyard and drinking wine. I should have been able to figure that one out.

We all piled into a bus for the one-hour ride to the Vineyard Heise am Kranzberg in Nierstein along the Rhein River. Upon our arrival, we immediately piled onto a tractor-drawn wagon, were handed some wurst and brötchen and told to open the cooler located at our feet and uncork a bottle of wine for goodness sake! For two hours, we sampled many different bottles of wine, munched on our snacks and enjoyed the sunset view of the countryside.

Three hot-air balloons drifted over the vineyards.

As the night went on, things got a bit rowdy, with political and sports debates and lots of singing.

Stopping to stretch our legs and enjoy the view.

With my good friend Kathy.

We ended the evening with dinner at the vineyard restaurant and a tour of their cellars. These oak barrels are for fermenting and aging red wine....

....and these stainless steel ones are better for white.

We could, of course, buy some of the wine from the vineyard and most of us found the Riesling Hipping trocken (a dry white wine) especially tasty.