My wine history:

My first wine tasting was in 1965 at age 22 on a Rhine river cruise - German Hock /Riesling while attending the ICN [International Convention of Nurses in Frankfort]. After Nursing School, I moved to Boise via Mexico and then to San Francisco from Delaware in 1966. Settled down in San Francisco with my first husband, Bruce Buchanan, Marnie's father, who deserted me in 1968 while pregnant. We moved to Berkeley in 1971 with Joel Peterson, a co-worker I met at Mt. Zion. We attended a weekly wine tasting dinner group at the Basque Hotel every Thursday, with visiting wine writers, negociants and importers: Hugh Johnson, Harry and Prudence Waugh from England, Frank Schoonmaker among the guests. I once surprised everyone with an Idaho Riesling from St. Chapelle in a brown bag - blind tasting.

 Joel and I were certified as Journeymen at a 1974 Napa Valley Wine Library wine appreciation course led by James Beard with Joe Heitz, Richard Peterson and Robert Mondavi among the instructors. 

Joel and I helped Joe and June Swan from harvest to bottling and often shared casual wine dinners with Kermit Lynch, neighbor Tom Dehlinger, Andre and Dorothy Tchelistcheff. Andre, Kermit and I were the only smokers - so we enjoyed each other's company as  outsiders after dinner. 

Joel and I made our first wine from blackberries, a second from Alexander Valley Cabernet Sauvignon in 1975 and started Ravenswood with our first commercial vintage of Zinfandel in 1976.  We often went to wine dinners at Chez Panisse in Berkeley and got to know Alice Waters and Mark Miller, who started Coyote Cafe much later in Sante Fe. Joel and I split up in 1979 and I took a year off in 1981 - early retirement - to visit France. Marnie, age 14, and I picked wine grapes in Meursault, stayed overnight at Jean-Michel Cazes of Lynch-Bages home in Paulliac, Bordeaux. As the mayor of Paulliac, he arranged for us to visit and taste at Mouton Rothschild as well as Lynch-Bages. 

I had taken a bottle of 1895 Simi Zinfandel with other CA wines in a case shipped to France - which I shared with friends Mary and Ivan Moseley in London. I love sharing surprises with people I know will appreciate wine. 

Returning to the US, I stayed with my sister Rhea in Rising Sun, MD. A neighbor let me make simple wine from his French Hybrid grapes: Marechal Foch and Seyville Blanc.  

My grandmother in Boise asked me to come help her with my grandfather who had been recently diagnosed with Alzheimers. Meanwhile, I had re-connected with Bob - my High School Sweetheart and we married in Boise on July 14, 1983 - 30 years coming up! 

We had both enjoyed making wine and beer and dancing! We became members of Les Amis du Vin with Statesman wine columnist, Brooks Tish;  joined TVWS in 2004 when the first Idaho competition and tasting was held at Eagle Knoll. We helped with pouring wines for the judging in 2005. I was asked to judge in 2006 at the Riverside.  

 In 2007, I chaired the judging panel at 8'th Street wine Cafe inviting Gary Vaynerchuk as a guest judge - public festival tasting at the Crystal Ballroom; 2008 we moved the competition only - no public tasting, to Meadow Lake Village with Doug Frost MS, MW as the guest judge and in 2009 we held our last TVWS Idaho Wine Competition at Meadow Lake. Savor Idaho promoted a public tasting and subsequent competition judging was taken over by NW Wine writers. Pairing wines with creative menus is my focus now as liaison for TVWS. 

Bob and I enjoy creative food preparation and have collected 2000 + bottles of wines in our cellar - it is time for us to drink more and buy less! Cheers!    

Stories

We were visiting Neil Glancey, winemaker at Wood River Cellars and met Dave Buich, owner from the Bay Area who's family has owned the Tadich Grill in San Francisco. He loves Idaho for raising his family. Brad Warner, winemaker/consultant who was visiting, had worked at Mondavi for 30 years. We shared tales of the early 70's and got around to the stories recounted by SF Chronicle columnist Herb Caen.
I told them the story of my grandmother's exchange with JR Simplot. He must have been about 6 years old when  my grandmother age 20, met him at Blue Lakes Ranch around 1915. His family came to the fruit ranch each fall to glean apples in the orchards. Gleaning is an old term used to describe people who come after the official harvest to pick fruit, vegetables or grains left on the trees, vines, bushes or on the ground to add to their personal larder for sustenance.  In later years, as JR Simplot grew his company, fortune and fame, my grandmother would  tell of meeting him as a youngster with his family.
We attended a Christmas sing-a-long at the Morrison Center in Boise one year when my grandmother was in a wheel chair. The seating area for wheel chairs made a wide walkway for other attendees on their way to their seats. As Mr. and Mrs. Simplot entered through this aisle, I rose and stopped him to re-introduce him to Stella Perrine [Haight] who remembered him visiting her father's fruit ranch. He loudly boasted: "you wouldn't recognize it now, Stella, I own it all" with a wide sweep of his arms. She inquired: "Are the apples any good?" and he replied: "They might be, if I sprayed them." They wished each other Merry Christmas as he went on his way. She quietly told me: "He's grown up into quite a good looking man."
Brad said I should publish this one of many stories we shared!

Where I have lived

Bob and I were talking about how grandson Christopher has only known us while living in this 1905 Boise Home. I decided to list all the places we each have lived since birth. Niether of us were military brats, so we may not have the diverse numbers some of our friends have accumulated, but we have a lot more than most people. I counted 32 and Bob counted 12.
I was born in Rahway, NJ while my parents rented a duplex apartment there. Dad was attending Columbia in NYC getting his Masters Degree in Chemical Engineering and working on the DDT project for his war effort. 1943. He was transferred to Carney's Point NJ in 1944 and we lived in a house in Penn's Grove. That was where I lost my first baby tooth in eating an apple, my mother got rid of our first set of kittens by re-locating them in the woods behind our house. I locked her out of the house - she had the mailman help her get back in. I remember Dad taking me to a bakery for the best cream puffs I've ever eaten. I had a Tea Set table, chairs, couch and lots of dolls to attend the many tea parties I arranged. 45-47.
In 1946, Mother and I went to live with her family in Wenatchee, WA as she was expecting my sister, Rhea. She wanted her mother near-by for her second delivery - When I was born - it was during WWII blackouts and other scary experiences. In Wenatchee, the Robinson house was next door to a castle with a reflecting pool. Both houses had circular staircases - the castle's had a blue bathtub at the bottom with goldfish in it. The Robinson home had two 'landings' one each over the living and dining rooms.The backyard had a great apple tree with a rope swing and grandpa had Irish and Gordon setters he took bird hunting. Christmas, I remember that my Uncle Bob - mother's 16 year younger brother got coal and a railroad spike in his stocking, because he was 'BAD'. After Rhea Frances was born April 4. 1947, I don't remember Dad being around, but we took the train or drove from the East Coast to Portland, Wenatchee and Idaho a couple of times. In Ketchum, Idaho 1948, I was 5 and we lived in a cottage down the hill from the RR tracks and the sheep drover's path. I attended the one room school house. Sometimes 5 of us neighbor kids would ride the draft horse to school - legs astride, holding on to the child in front. The winter snows were above roof tops and mother worked as cashier in the SunValley Lodge and sang in a trio in the Ram. We had a housekeeper nanny named Mrs. Wright. I learned to ski on Dollar Mountain and how to swim in the Lodge Pool with a chef 'Gus' who pulled me as I kicked and held on to his toes. I also got rides around Sun Valley on the Postman's bicycle. 1949 1'st grade started in September in Ketchum. Then, after ski season, we moved to #5 Sacramento - 2120 Murietta Way - with mother's Lynfield college roomate Frances Cottingham Longworth Robbins and her 3 children: Joy, John and Craig. Mother delivered Leslie Carlynne on Mother's Day, 1950.  I remember the sidewalk gutters flooding such that we could wade knee deep in the streets. Lynn Sherman was my friend and she wore braces on her legs due to Polio. One of the neighbors had the first Television I had ever seen and we got to watch Roy Rogers, Hop-a-long Cassidy, Gene Autrey, The Lone Ranger and Tonto. More to come ...

Apples -> Grapes

This original Apple packing box label was used on lug boxes of Blue Lakes Apples in the early 1900's. The apple 'pictured' is a Rome Beauty - my grandmother's favorite. You can see two of the many medals I.B. Perrine won for his fruit: Nebraska State Fair in Omaha, 1896 and the Paris, France International Exposition of 1900. On the left of the label there is a horse drawn stage coach descending down the north grade hairpin turn road that took I.B. seven years to build - it is still the main road into the Blue Lakes Canyon today. In a small frame on the right side of the label is a depiction of Shoshone Falls [the Niagra of the West] by the Oregon Short Line Railroad.
Apples would have been designated in the lower left blank space for "Variety" and the intended recipient's address in the space marked "To_____"
Many vineyardists I have known say that wherever you can grow good apples, you can grow good grapes. That is why so many acres in California, Oregon, Washington and Idaho have been converted from apple orchards to vineyards. Historically, apples of the heirloom varieties produced good crops only every other year. Bankers like to have annual income guarantees when they loan money to farmers. Many orchard farmers could not get loans for apple orchard necessities in the early 70's, but they could get loans for grapes - especially wine grape vineyards. The growth spurt of vineyards was based on a flowering of the trends indicating wine was a good investment for the predicted increase in future wine consumers. Two things about this strike me as sad and funny - a number of heritage apple varieties disappeared or became endangered species.  Bankers would most likely not get any return on investments in vineyards for at least 5 years. Bankers are born Gamblers!

Certifications

The Century Club an organization founded in London, with a logical, educational aspect on wine tasting - you become a member by documenting 100 wine grape varietals you have tasted. The Century Club certification is free - however, Mr. De Long sells charts, maps and tasting reservations for the annual tasting/meetings in London and NYC. There are also American Chapters of this organization.

I don't know the details of forming a Century Club tasting group - I know they are relatively new. Here is the link to their website: Wine Century Club. The old Chevalier du Taste Vin and Les Amis du Vin were French "clubs" - I think they may now exist only in France. There are also guilds and courts - Masters of Wine and Master Sommeliers headquartered in London - certification organizations that are based on very rigid testing and writing a thesis related to Wine [MW] ... or the alcohol service business [MS] and are very expensive and prestigious - there are only 20 MW's since 1990 in the USA, only three people in the world who are certified both MW and MS. Doug Frost is the only one in the USA.

American organizations have started widely varied certification programs - for knowledge of wines of the world, qualified wine judges and the organizers expect to make money. I am skeptical that certification will mean much in the future - except that it may be easier to get a job / promotion in the wine business, as Leslie Young has recently been promoted to manager of the CO-OP Wine Shop. To my knowledge, she is the only one working there with certification credentials.

Rabbits and wine

Getting close to the day the Easter Bunny arrives. How is it that Easter eggs are delivered by a rabbit? Well, here is the tale I've heard told ...Easter often coincides with the 10 days of Passover, a Jewish holiday celebrating the passage of enslaved Jews from Egypt into Palestine, led by Moses who performed a miracle parting the Red Sea, allowing them to walk right across land where there once was water. A special dinner called a Seder is shared amongst family and congregants, with four glasses of kosher wine per adult swallowed quickly at different occasions during the feast, after raising the glass with a toast "La Chaim" = To Life!.
The first course consists of symbolic foodstuffs, Parsley, salt water, bitter fruits and nuts, a lamb shank bone, a honeyed mash of apples and hard-boiled eggs.
Years ago a congregation was making plans for the Seder. All invitees were to share in bringing something. Rabbi Thoshinski volunteered to bring the hard-boiled eggs. He left a note: "Rabbi T bringing the eggs."
As Christians evolved holiday rituals from Jewish as well as Pagan holiday celebrations, the message was interpreted as Rabbit bringing the eggs. To color the holiday as a spring celebration, Easter eggs were dyed lovely floral colors.
Now you know ...
Why there is a Leaping Lapin in front of a Bordeaux vineyard is perhaps just as a creative artistic creation as my colored pencil drawing of Rabbits making Wine.
Cheers

Oldest

As I age, the more I appreciate acknowledgement of the oldest of anything.

I recently read that the oldest winery in North America is Casa Madero in the state of Coahuila in Mexico, founded in 1597. Mexican wineries have been winning medals in European competitions for at least a century. The one winery I have visited is Santo Tomas in Baja. One of the many winemakers at Santo Tomas was Dimitri Tchellichief, son of Dorothy and BV vintner Andrae. The present winemaker is Laura Zamora, who has been publishing food pairing suggestions on some of the labels. Always helpful for consumers trying a wine for the first time.

There are also wineries located in the states of Aquascalientes, Zacatecas and Queretaro.

A popular family Restaurante Nicos in Mexico City, Districto Federal, includes many wines of Mexico on their wine list. Chef Lugo is an advocate of pairing his culinary creations with wines of his nation as well as tequila and artisanal beers.

http://www.winemag.com/Wine-Enthusiast-Magazine/March-2011/Mixing-it-Up-With-Chef-Lugo/

The Wine Century Club

A couple of years ago I qualified for membership in the Wine Century Club by completing my application listing 100 wine grape varieties I had tasted. At the time,

this seemed like a lot and the idea of getting to 200 seemed unimaginable, so I just relaxed, framed my certificate and hung it on the wall in the wine cellar. I also purchased the DeLong Grape Varieties deluxe wall chart package. [~ $30]The chart resembles the periodic table of elements. We also purchased one for grandson, Chris and our friend, Cristi from the Buzz, who was studying to be a certified Sommelier. She has hers beautifully framed and hanging in the Buzz coffee/wine Café. There are now quite a number of regional century club tasting groups, meeting to widen the education of members and increase the number of varietals tasted. Here is a link to the Wine Century Club where you can apply for membership.

Wine and Food Memberships

Geneology is slowing me down, so I decided to record my wine history as actively involved in world of Wine and Food for nearly 40 years:
San Francisco, California Friends of Wine, 1973 membership # 200 - it became the California Wine Institute.
Napa Valley Wine Library Association, Journeyman Diploma
1974 UC Davis various short workshop courses for winemakers
1975 - 1977 Basque Hotel Every Thursday Night Tasting Group San Francisco
1972-1979 Taster and contributing critic, Mark [Sante Fe Cafe] Miller's Marketbasket wine and food periodical
1975 Ravenswood Winery First Assistant to Joel E. Peterson, the Winemaker
1976 - 1979 Draper-Esquin tasting group
1972 - 1979 Women's Wine Group [organizer]
1979-1981 Wine and Health course for RN's - European Tour - Oxford, Champagne, Bordeaux
1981 J'faire les Vendage en Meursault,
1982 I made wine from friend's vineyard in PA - Marechal Foch and Seyval Blanc.

Since moving to Idaho, I have vinified dandelions, rose petals, huckleberries, cherries, elderberries, Chardonnay, Riesling, Merlot and a 'backyard bubbly' from unknown grape varietals in yard since buying this 1905 home in 1986.
Idaho Grapegrowers and Wine Producers Org. - attended meetings at St. Chapelle in 1984.
Idaho Chapter of Les Amis du Vin 1983 - 1990 Brooks Tisch, organizer.
Johnny Carino's Wine Club, 1998 - 99.
Treasure Valley Wine Society 2004 - present.
The Wine Century Club, 2007
Buzz Wine Club - monthly and quarterly wine tasting dinners since 2009.
Boise Wine Club monthly tasting meets newly formed 2010 - 2011

Various Winery Wine Clubs:
Joseph Swan, Ravenswood, Ridge, Indian Creek, Davis Creek, Cold Springs, Fraser, Bedrock, Brown-Haight, Hell's Canyon, Syringa and Vale.

Other related education and experience:
Cheeses of the World - certified in San Francisco 1977. Worked part time in a Cheese Store in Marin County, CA.
1978 Certification from Comite National Des Vins de France.

Wine Regions visited:
California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Virginia, Maryland, NY Fingerlakes, Missourri, Ohio, Mosel, Rhine, Necker, Nahe, Austria, Alsace, Bordeaux, Burgundy, Jura, Loire, Rhone, Provence, Frontenac, NE.Spain, N.Italy - Piedmont, Friuli, Tuscany, Sienna Wine Museum.

Wine and Food Festivals attended:
Heirloom Tomato Fest, Sun Valley Idaho Wine and Food Festival, Gilroy Garlic Festival.


 Interests: - ongoing Home Winemaker, Foodie, History of Wine and Food, Organic Chemistry, Home Brewer, Ida-Quaffers, Anthropology of Wine and Food, maintain with my husband a Foodie and a Wine Blog, Amateur Restaurant Critic list of reviewed restaurants on our WebPage - www.rockinrs.com ... Ongoing research of regional wine and authentic food pairing for optimal balance and pleasure. Wine steward for judging- 2005, Judge for Idaho Wine Festival & Competition-2006, Past Chair of Judges for Idaho Wine Competition 2007, 2008, 2009. I had to write it all down before my memory leaves me and there are days I just wave!

Geneology of Perrin / Perrine

The surname of PERRIN was a baptismal name - the son of Peter, the name was from the Old French Pierre, a name brought to England with William the Conqueror in 1066. Apparently, family surnames were generally not in use until after 1200 except among royalty. It does seem odd that first names are the only way I [we] remember the identity of various royalty in history and the present: Henry the 8th, Catherine of Aragon, Louis XIV, King George and Queen Elizabeth. Do we use or even know their family surnames? Not as commonly as other titles such as the Duke of York, Prince of Wales and the same holds true for elected Papal personages, in that only a first name is commonly used: ie, Pope John.
As I have been trying to trace back Perrine family geneology and hoping to connect with the Chateauneuf du Pape wine producers Perrin et Fils, the fact that there were so many sons of Pierre or Peter all over Europe raises the probability of only being able to trace a family lineage through DNA comparisons and eliminations. At the very least, this has been challenging and mind expanding. Who needs drugs? Perhaps a little wine sets my imagination free to roam.
Cheers

Perrin/Perrine

The Perrine Bridge presently crossing Snake River between TwinFalls and the hiway to Shoshone, Hailey, Ketchum, Galena Summit to Stanley is a replacement for the original cantiliever suspension bridge first erected in the 1920's. This is the bridge that people free jump off on the East side - parachuting and landing on the south bank of Snake River. Popular with daredevils from all over the world, most succeed without injury. There is a bridge across the river down in the canyon. Originally, built as a toll bridge replacing a "ferry or raft" method for crossing Snake River, it now holds the water cysterns transporting drinking water to Twin Falls from Blue Lakes.
IB Perrine designed the center of Twin Falls on a diagonal plat, to take advantage of sunshine with no cardinal facing buildings. The original center city Perrine Hotel was often a destination for political candidates, with a grand balcony used for campaign speeches. William Jennings Bryant, 2X presidential candidate, loved to visit Idaho and the Blue Lakes Ranch.
Thomas Edison and Luther Burbank were good friends to IB Perrine. He had the first electric light bulbs installed in the canyon house. The first Red and Golden delicious apples were grafted onto Blue Lakes apple trees. My aunt just found a document that invited IB Perrine to consult with orchardists in France, but he declined. At the peak of his fame and wealth, he would attend the Opera in Salt Lake City with his wife and my grandmother. They had a family box and the 'ladies' had to have the latest couiture dresses made by a French dressmaker in SLC.
IB dabbled in investments in others gold mines and the stock market. He lost everything in the crash of 1929. The Blue Lakes Country Club leased the land from him until he had to sell it to them to live on. IB died the same year I was born, HG [ GiGi] died in Boise when I was 4.
more to follow ...

Idaho/Oregon Rootstock

Recently, I was asked to describe the origin of my interest in Idaho wines.


My mother's family were Oregonians from the 1800's. She and her mother were born in The Dalles. One of those earlier Remington ancestors was from the Dr. Benjamin Rush lineage, who consulted at President Thomas Jefferson's request, by training Merriweather Lewis in medical knowledge and asked him to bring back samples of indigenous medicinal herbs. The voyage of discovery brought many pioneering families into Oregon and Idaho. My Robinson relatives became wheat farmers and livestock ranchers in the John Day and Redmond, Oregon areas. Not wanting to stay on the farm, my mother's father became a salesman and eventually a J.C. Penny Manager in Wenatchee, WA, Bend, OR and Twin Falls, ID.


My mother graduated from Twin Falls HS in 1938. She was the first "Miss Twin Falls" competing in the Miss America pre-lims at Sun Valley. She met my father in elementary school in Twin Falls. He was a 6'th grade student who instructed her 4'th grade class during a 1929 seasonal flu epidemic that knocked out a lot of teachers as well as students.


Photo of Grandmother Stella Haight, my mother Jeanne Robinson Haight and me on GG Perrine's lap.

My father's family roots included Donald McKay who came 'round the horn' from Boston to San Francisco. [see picture of clipper ship] during the Gold Rush in the 1850's. He followed the rush to Idaho in the 1860's and became a "founding father" of Hailey, Idaho.

He must have made a good income from mining: he ordered Kangaroo skin shoes from Australia and wore 3 piece wool suits. He married Amanda Bartholemew, they purchased the McPhail Hotel in Shoshone,and raised two daughters, Stella and Hortense Genevieve. [my great grandmother]. He was a knowledgeable blacksmith as well and was remembered by my grandmother as always carrying mints in his vest pockets.

Ira Burton Perrine left Indiana at age 18 to find his fortune in the Idaho mines. He was too small of stature to do much heavy lifting, but he learned how to use dynamite and knew enough about dairy farming to bring the first herd of milk cows to Hailey in the 1880's. When the snows of his first winter became too deep in Hailey for the cows to graze, he was told by hotelier Henry Walgamott about the Blue Lakes in the Snake River Canyon, where the snows rarely stuck and grasses grew year round - probably due to some of the warm springs. He drove his cows down an entrance through a box canyon, where his only neighbors were a white trapper and a native woman. The present day N. canyon wall double hairpin curved road to Blue Lakes Country Club east of Alpheus creek and the fish hatcheries to the west was a one-lane project that took him 7 years to complete. He was also hired by Mr Walgamott to drive the stage coach back and forth from Walgamott's canvas hotel to the train station in Shoshone, where he met and later married H.G. McKay known to me as GG or GiGi. IB Perrine built a fine house down in the canyon and became an early fruit farmer and orchardist. He took saddlebags of fresh strawberries to the pioneers on the Oregon Trail stopping at Rock Creek station. His prune plums and Roma apples won awards at the 1900 Paris World expedition, as well as the first Idaho State Fair in 1897 and fairs throughout the west. The only ranch building remaining is the bee-keepers cabin on Alpheus Creek.

Ward Hooper graphic of the IBPerrine bridge.



The Perrine family ancestry in the US began with the Huguenot, Daniel Perrin immigrating in 1665. He was granted 80 acres on Staten Island. Winegrape growing was a natural cultural necessity, along with the usual crops for feeding his family.
IB Perrine planted Delaware grapes [from Delaware, Ohio - some believe Napolean's son planted the Ohio vineyard - Lord De La Ware was honored with the common name for a grape which is neither native labrusca, nor a vinefera cultivar, but thought to be a french hybrid] IB made cider from his apples, but no one remembers him making wine. The Delaware grapes were my father's favorite grape. He lived down in the canyon while attending school in Twin Falls. I surmise he accepted employment as a Chemical Engineer with DuPont, thinking he could get those grapes in the state of Delaware.
Although the surname Perrin / Perrine is as common in France as Smith or Jones is here, we like to claim a family relationship with the reliable Southern Rhone family of winemakers - Perrin et Fils or the Champagne Perrins in the Aube/Ardennes between Reims and Dijon.

To be continued ....

in the Beginning...everyone has a story

Being a certified GrapeNut and Journeyman in Wine, I have lots of little stories aka, Vignettes, about wine - collecting, making, tasting, judging, educating others, describing and personal benchmarks from years ago. It is said that your palate changes with age. Some, who start out drinking soda-pop wines might never evolve to drink and enjoy serious, big, tannic red wines. Their loss, my gain.

I started my rapture in Germany. My first taste of wine was communion wine in the Episcopal Church. Looking back, I can now say these were Oloroso Sherries, Madieras and Tawny Ports used to symbolize the blood of Christ. Easy sipping for a 12 year old - one sip was all that was allowed. I'll have to ask the altar/alter-boys if they ever drank more than the minister. He always emptied the Chalice at the end of each service. He needed it; he was such a dour cold fish. The Reverand Mr. Ludlow.
Back to my rapture in Germany. I was 21 in the summer of 1965. Finishing my senior year of Nurses' training at the Delaware Hospital School of Nursing in Wilmington, Delaware. I was class president and President of the Delaware State Student Nurses' Association. I attended the National Student Nurses' Association meeting in San Francisco as a delegate, the Red Cross Volunteer Nurses Convention in Washington, D.C. and the International Congress of Nursing in Frankfurt am Main, Germany.
One of the side trips I took was a boat-ride on the Rhine River from Koln to Koblenz to Bingen. We passed the Lorelei and Rhine wine was presented to everyone. It was a revelation, an epiphany! Wine could be fresh and fruity, complex and intriguing. More to come...as one never knows it all!