I started day one flying out of Tampa and heading to Frankfurt, Germany, with a group of people from around the world.  I left the states with the hopes of tasting wines that I knew very little about...Reisling.  As we touched down in Germany I didn't know what I was in for: 160 wines in 7 days.  We met up at the airport at 11am and went to the hotel in Worms (pronounced Vorms, which translates to Dragon).  After freshening up we went on a 2 hour walking tour around the city and ended up first at the statue of the Madonna. 

 
Those of you who have been in our stores know we carry the Valkenburg Madonna line of wine; well, the picture on the side of the bottle is of the statue on the estate.  This estate is known as the Liebfrauenstift estate. 
 
Something you may not know is that in 1400 monks built a monestary and a church which they dedicated to Our Dear Lady, together with a chapel, in which a Madonna statue stood.  The pilgrims who came to the church were allowed to try the wines that grew around the church and were said to proclaim that it was so good it could have come from the Mother herself--hence the name Liebfraumilch!
  
(Wine maker Tilman Queins)

While we were there we tasted wines and met the wine maker.  From there was a dinner at a local restaurant.  The next thing we knew we were told to be at the bus at 8am.  No rest if we wanted to get to ALL the estates represented by Valkenburg!  
 
 

Guest blogger Kathleen Robinson is the wine consultant at our Lake Wales store.