As Ordinary As We Are, The Libations In Eisenberg Are Divine To Say The Least.

Dining, pot-lucking, feasting or re-pasting in our village is always accompanied by the most delectable wines.

As the proud wife of a newly minted fireman, I do show my support and attend the odd function and last night it was the AGM. As with most AGMs, they can be rather boring for the non-involved but thankfully not too long in duration.

Naturally, the Eisenberger Fire chief put on a spread afterwards or rather we all trekked up a very long and icy hill to the Grenzland Keller and please don't worry, we all motored ( or rather convoyed ) up by car. A buffet was organized and as the meeting was extremely brief, we were ahead of schedule.

The hungry feeling ( it was almost eight pm ) provided a drumming background noise as the various stomachs did their grumbling. Of course not all was lost as the tables had the wines already opened and one could almost imagine their whisper of :" please pour me...". Wine is as freely flowing in our area as I imagine fresh milk is up in the Swiss Alps.

White wine it was to be and even though we are in the depth of winter with multiple minus degrees, the wine was kept chilled in a clay wine cooler. Only the tip of the green bottle peeped out and no one bothered with checking the vintage.

Tasting this divine libation was a nice way to while away the time till supper. From the first sip, the wine showed its class, smoothness and flavour.

Sitting on a long table with all eyes focused on each other, just in case we missed anything of importance, I was rather reserved and filled my glass to a ladylike level...two finger's worth once or twice.

The food was good, but of course not fitting to complement the superb wine on offer. We had a choice of Vienna Schnitzel, roast pork or fried chicken with rice or chips. As I said, it was good food but would have paired better with a bottle of beer.

Honestly, the wine was much more pleasing to the palate before the food and luckily for me, I have the acquired habit of sipping my wine before supper and only paired with some cheese or savoury biscuit.

Just as a couple of centuries ago a young Englishman of good stock would do the Grand Tour, so Bob and I, in our youth, had done the required tour of most wine estates in South Africa...the Grand Tours Of Stellenbosch and Paarl! Cunningly they paired their tastings with morsels delectable in themselves, yet paired with the wines, they lifted the taste sensation to another level. Clearly a worthwhile education

At the moment, the libation of Eisenberg and Deutsch Schützen are world class, but imagine how out of this world they would taste when paired with a fitting morsel of food?

Last night's wine was from a young and rather handsome vintner, Mathias Jalits, who is producing award winning wines.

Biggi