Kaiserstuhl: Adieu Autumn (Satis Shroff)

KAISERSTUHL: A Farewell to Autumn (Satis Shroff)

It was the 16th of October,2016 and Kaiserstuhl was celebrating the Ernte-Dankfest and bidding Autumn adieu in the wine-growing area, which is located between the Black Forest of Germany and the Vosges mountains of Alsace (France).

The day began with a Thanksgiving mess at the local church in Ihringen (Kaiserstuhl) at 9:30 am, followed by a Thanksgiving procession. A whole lot was offered this day in terms of  a small-animal show (rabbits and hares), walks in the countryside organized by the Black Forest Association to neighboring Alsace (France), autumn festival, onion cake festival in Vogtsburg-Oberbergen,  more walks to the deep ravines of the Schwarzwald, open gardens where you could relax, pay the Heimat museum a visit, and towards dusk you could wait for the night guard (Nachtwächter) to arrive in Vogtsburg-Burkheim, with his tales from life in the Middle Ages.

As is the custom, in the course of the day I went to the Kaiserstühler Wine Society’s hangout to try out some of the local wines with the Sommeliere Corinna Schilling in Winzerstrasse 6.  You could take part in a wine seminar. Kaiserstuhl (Emperor’s Chair) has a special soil made of lava, which has its origin millions of years ago, with a clear, loess-clay layer of earth, and which has proved to be excellent for vineyards. Grapes have been cultivated in Ihringen, Achkarren in Kaiserstuhl since the early Middle Ages.

In order to check the erosion in the hillocks, terraces were laid at an early stage. It was all handwork, and still is, in parts of the region where tractors can’t ply. You see the wine makers cutting the grapes with their implements and dumping them in the big baskets on their backs. There are also mechanized methods in use. The grapes that are collected by the many helping hands are brought to be pressed and stored in traditional wooden barrels or in towering steel silos.

Ihringen has been blessed with sunshine and is, indeed, the sunniest area in south-west Germany. The sun and the loess soil make it an ideal area for growing light, fruity sorts of grapes, as well as extra-rich, strong Burgunder and sweet noble sorts. This is what makes the Kaiserstuhler wines win national and international prizes with wines such as: Müller-Thurgau, Rivaner, Winkelberg Grey Burgunder, Riesling Forenberg Ruländer, Spätburgunder red wine. The blue Spätburgunder is Pinot noir. I love the Spätburgunder Weißherbst, Winkelberg Muskateller and the Scheurebe. Ihringen also produces Silvaner Sekt Brut, Pinot Sekt Dry and the Testerbrand from Gewürztraminer. The Gewürztraminer grapes are small, reddish-brown, very sweet and are picked later in the season.

The Müller-Thurgau is a cross between the Riesling and the Silvaner. A Swiss professor named Hermann Müller crossed the two sorts of wine in the year 1882. The Ruländer belongs to the grey Burgunder wine, that is, Pinot gris. The Swiss call it Malvoisie in the canton Wallis, the Hungarians call it szurkebarat (grey monk) and the Alsatians call it Tokay.

Sibylle and Hans Breisacher have a lovely, dream garden in the Wasenweiler Street 26 in Ihringen and it has received prizes in the years 2012 and 2014. It’s a superb experience just to walk saunter around and enjoy the painstakingly arranged garden and its ambient. It doesn’t have the sprawling greatness of an English garden like the one at Ettenbühl but it has its charm. The exquisitely designed white chairs and tables on the lush green lawn, tropical vegetation because of the lavish sunshine, and the dedication of the Breisacher couple have made the garden a virtual paradise.

Three white cupids with three scarlet apples, a hidden pond with cycads and lotus leaves swimming, figures with ghoulish faces carved on wood, the reflection of the surrounding trees on the pond’s surface, flamingoes made of metal on the brim of the pond. A wooden table with a wire-basket full of ripe apples, a branch cutter and a bamboo keg. Yellow flowers and lilacs. Sitting corners with chairs and table, inviting you to sit, drink tea or coffee and chat with friends, departed or imagined. Red Maulbeere. Still life: a table with apples, pumpkin, maize because it’s the autumnal season, and also time for creamy pumpkin soup, as the temperature goes down. Halloween is also close. You discern the sound of water splashing in the three-tiered fountain in the garden and olde agricultural implements arranged aesthetically between the trees and bushes. Everywhere you looked there is art.

What a delight.