International Glühwein Tour 2006 (part 1)

We spent the weekend Christmas-market-hopping around our little corner of Europe. On Friday I introduced fellow blogger Ali and my mother-in-law to that most delicious of Christmas treats, Glühwein (hot spiced wine, for those who haven’t been following along). This took place in the courtyard of the Landesmuseum, a large castle right next to the Zurich train station. In December, the courtyard becomes a little winter paradise, complete with ice skating rink and multiple food and drink stands serving up hot beverages and raclette.

I’m happy to report that the Glühwein was a hit all around (unlike last year when I made Swiss Mrs. try it for the first time – she found it vile. I don’t know what’s wrong with her, either.)

On Saturday we headed north to Baden Baden (not to be confused with Baden), a medium-sized town in Germany with a cute walking-district in the center and a big outdoor Christmas market (as opposed to the Zurich market, which loses quaintness points for being indoors). We spent the day wandering around and sampling various German Christmas treats, such as Glühwein, Magenbrot, Glühwein, roasted chestnuts, and Glühwein.

We were impressed with the wide variety of Glühwein variants on offer, such as white Glühwein, Glühwein with amaretto and oranges, Glühwein with Kirsch, and Glühwein with Jägermeister, just to name a few. We also liked that it was served in real mugs rather than styrofoam cups. One pays a Pfand, or deposit, on the mugs, and can choose to keep them as souvenirs or return them to the Glühwein stand to retrieve this deposit.

The next day we took the train over to France to check out the famous Strasbourg Christmas market. It was certainly the most crowded Christmas market I have ever been to, and probably the largest, as well. The large gothic cathedral in the center of town reminded me a little of Milan’s, and looked quite picturesque surrounded by a sea of Christmas market stands and an ice skating rink. The Glühwein (or vin chaud, as it is called in France) was served in horribly flimsy plastic cups, but at least it tasted pretty good. We had some delicious cheese and walnut savory crepes for lunch at a stand run by a very entertaining French couple. I also found a stand selling a delicious white Glühwein, which outdid even the German version.

Overall Germany is winning the international Glühwein competition, with Switzerland coming in a not-so-close second. France didn’t do so badly, but it lost major points for the flimsy hard-to-handle plastic cups. Don’t the French understand the importance of presentation?

Expovina (and my first sighting as a world-famous blogger)

Fellow blogger Ali and I (and our husbands) spent the afternoon checking out Expovina (see here for a little info in English). In case you missed my post about the spring edition of Expovina, here’s a brief overview of the idea: you pay CHF 15 apiece to get into a giant wine expo, where you get to sample wines from all over the world until you can no longer stand up. It would be easy to attend every single day of the 2-week-long expo and not run out of new wines to sample. And as if thousands of wines weren’t enough, one can also taste fun things such as Kirsch and Williams and other essential Swiss after-dinner drinks.

The fall edition of Expovina takes place aboard 12 ships that are docked downtown on the lake right at Bürkliplatz. The atmosphere aboard the ships is quaint and cozy, and perfect for sampling a bunch of wine.

After we had drunk our fill of vino, the four of us headed out to dinner. As we were about to leave, a couple walked by our table and started to talk to us. At first I was worried we were about to be reprimanded for being loud and obnoxious (we had been having way too much fun making fun of German health problems), but as it turns out the couple just wanted to say hi. They recognized Ali and I from reading our blogs. It felt like we were celebrities for a moment - not movie starts or chart-topping singers or anything, but more like contestants from some b-list reality show.

Expovina runs through November 16^th, so we might even try to go back for a second round. But if we do, for the sake of my circulation, I will be staying far, far away from the cabernet sauvignon (story for another day).

Eating and drinking our way through southern France

Wednesday evening we hopped on an overnight train to go visit our friends who live on the southern coast of France. Being on a French train and all, we had a couple of unscheduled delays, but in the end we were content to arrive at our destination a mere two hours late (yay, no strikes). We spent these extra two hours talking about how much we love Swiss trains, and vowing to never leave our country again.

Things only improved from there. Our friends picked us up at the train station and whisked us back to their home by the sea in St. Pierre la Mer, a tiny village of 500 inhabitants which swells to 100,000 during the tourist invasion of the summer vacation months. We spent the morning wandering the outdoor market by the beach, marveling at treats such as fresh almonds (which had furry green coats) and baby artichokes.

The afternoon was spent hopping from winery to winery, sampling everything the region had to offer. Riana has already detailed the specific wineries we visited on her blog, so you can go there for the details.

The next day started with a decadent breakfast of homemade baklava and macarons, after which we headed to Narbonne to explore the town. We explored the indoor food market, the cathedral, and the winding cobblestone streets that made up the town center. I picked up some truffle oil (which I haven’t been able to find in Zurich) at a small oil boutique run by a loquacious old French man who seemed convinced I could speak French (I have mastered the art of laughing and nodding at the right points in a conversation even when I have no idea what’s going on). We had a sumptuous lunch at an adorable little wine shop/deli/cooking school/pastry shop and then wandered around some more.

The afternoon was filled with more wineries and wine tastings. As we drove through the winding, hilly roads, we often came up behind slow-moving farm vehicles hauling loads of freshly-harvested grapes. We briefly considered getting jobs as day laborers and helping out with the harvest, but quickly came to our senses when we realized that there would be no I-love-Lucy-style grape stomping involved.

On Saturday we woke up before dawn and piled into the car for the drive out to our friends’ top-secret mushrooming spot. Thanks to the damp weather of the past few days, we found more ceps (similar to porcini) than we could carry. Back at the sea house, we cleaned the mushrooms and lunched on fresh mushroom omelets.

We then frittered away the afternoon walking barefoot on the beach. I was a little disappointed that it was too cold to swim, but it was nice to be able to enjoy the beach without oppressive sun and heat or throngs of tourists. Despite my aversions to sun and crowds, I really love beaches.

For dinner we headed to a restaurant at one of the wineries we had visited earlier. We had to special-order a vegetarian meal for me in advance (apparently French chefs require ample preparation time before slapping some vegetable side-dishes on a plate without meat). The food was decent, but the real star of the evening was the all-you-can-drink wine bar which was included with the meal. The desserts weren’t bad, either.

Stuffed from our three-course dinners, we decided to wait until the next morning to eat the decadent chocolate peanut butter cupcakes that Riana had made. We enjoyed them in the car on the way to Montpelier, where Riana and Benji dropped us at the train station and sent us on our way to Lyon.

Vino. Lots and lots of vino.

Last night we checked out the Expovina, a week-long expo that allows one to sample wines from around the world in one convenient converted-warehouse location. For a nominal entrance fee of CHF 12, we were free to bounce from stand to stand, tasting as many wines as our palates could handle.

There were millions more wines on offer than we could have possibly sampled in one evening, so we focused on finding some good, affordable Swiss whites, which was surprisingly easy to do. Switzerland’s wines are usually poopooed by connoisseurs, but it’s really not such a bad place to find some flavorful, drinkable whites. And we’re no connoisseurs.

Most of our favorites ended up coming from Waadtland, the area on Lake Geneva between Nyon and Montreux. We intend to go back and order a case or two of a few of them, as soon as we remember which wines those were (or decipher our increasingly illegible notes in the margin of the catalog). I know there was a particular Blanc de Noir (white wine made from skinless pinot noir grapes) that I must have again….