A Saturday Filled With White Wine Harvesting, Pressing & Insights.

Another gorgeous Südburgenland day.

Some say that the harvest is early this year, some that it is late, but everyone agrees that it is much less than last year. Weather having muscled in on the action throughout the growing period. Bob and I helped my parents to harvest the white grapes. The ' we ' seems a bit stretched as I had two hours of English extra lessons and only got there towards the end of part one.

The de-stemming part which was followed by the best part, a lunch break at one of our local Buschenschanks, Wiesler - Schreiner. Apart from having had fantastic weather, yesterday we were blessed with a fantastic lunch. The bread was fresh and still crackled when one cut the crust and the glass of chilled Welsch Riesling oiled it perfectly.

Did I mention that we sat at the foot of Eisenberg's wine hill? The greens are starting to turn yellow and orange and it brought home the feeling of being on holiday. Yes, we live a life that really doesn't need a holiday.

A couple who are here on a week's holiday had helped with the harvesting and they had the Eisenberg twinkle in their eyes.

The Eisenberg twinkle: When they start to question their own lifestyle and work out the possibility of moving to Eisenberg for good. Some even start to number crunch!

It happens again and again when stressed out people take a holiday in our area, thinking that for a change they'll go into the boring rural backwaters, only to realize and understand that the lives we lead here are what countless others are yearning and searching for their whole life.

On that topic, earlier in the morning as I was going for a walk with a friend, we stumbled across a mini meeting of three people and two dogs. A woman, who looked to be in her mid-thirties, was asking about houses for sale.

" Oh, there are a few lovely houses for sale in and around our village. "
was my input...

" I need to be sure that there is enough going on in the village so that I won't be bored. "

...well, she isn't ready (yet ) for an adventurous life in our neck of the woods...

Biggi