My
biggest passion – until the bikes came!
Up
to the great age of 35 I didn´t even know what wine actually is. Because the
stuff I knew from home (Mosel sweet wine on big holidays) or what I drank in
various student bars – I would not define that as wine today.
In
the mid-80´s, my best buddy HP had the fatal idea to give us a real bottle of
wine (Lafite 59) and to empty it together. My surprise at what this liquid can
taste like was at least as big as my fascination.
From
then on, I was smitten and the founding of Bernhardt & Galsterer, Wine
Subscriptions was not far: We used our big
circle of friends as a basis for a pretty smart distribution system and extended
the “company” slowly. It was big fun: negotiations
with winegrowers, visits to wine fairs in Verona and Vienna, writing off Tuscany
trips against tax etc. During this time, I
once wrote a text for our monthly Bottle Post about Chateau Chasse Spleen (see
below), which catches my fascination quite well.
Now
my contact with this product is restricted to reducing my wine cellar´s content
and to occasional tastings in Maremma, France or Wachau. Speaking of wine
cellars: My absolute nightmare for the time when I will have kicked the bucket
(and the cellar key) is the following: My daughter and a bunch of law students
or (worse still) future MBAs have occupied my beloved home in wintery
Unterwössen and they´re making from Margaux, Barolo and Sassicaia ... I hardly
dare to write it down ... MULLED WINE!!! (“Put in some more cinnamon, or
it´ll taste of nothing”). I believe then I would have to reincarnate in Hindu
tradition for a little while and kick her ass in my second life.
