This week we visited with Prinz Salm. Here’s a quick video showing the estate:
The estate has been around since 1200, but the average age of the current team in charge is 25! We tasted and toured with Felix, who’s 27 and the current wine maker (he started 2 years ago). He’s the 32nd generation, but the first one to focus only on wine making – historically, the family has also been involved in politics, construction and finance.
Felix told us a story about when his grandparents were living near Cologne prior to WWII. When his grandmother received word the Americans were coming, she acted quickly to preserve the family’s wine cellar. She took all the bottles from the cellar, tied rocks to them and tossed them into the nearby lake. The wines were protected and the family did get them back, but there was one serious shortcoming to her idea – the day after she sunk the bottles, all of their labels floated to the surface of the lake.
After we toured the estate, Felix took us to some of his family’s vineyards. Here’s a video where’s discussing one of his current projects, replanting Riesling vines.
(This video has useful information, but it appears as though it was shot by a child. I didn’t realize you can’t get a “portrait” shot in video mode – only “landscape”. I’ll get the hang of it)
A Thirsty Spirit 