Spats McGee said:Yes, but the beers are first-class! I lived in Regensburg for about a year from August 1998 to about July 1999. If I remember rightly, the Thurn & Taxis brewery was bought out right before I left. All of the locals that I knew scoffed at the Thurn & Taxis Hefeweizen, but I thought it was fantastic.
The other thing that I've missed is an Italian frizzantino (sp?). It was a very lightly sparkling Italian wine, not very expensive, but very drinkable. Very nice for a warm afternoon of sitting on the balcony.
Truth be told, I find most of the German wines to have a little too much of a one-note character for my tastes. (They're eintoenig. At least I think that's the word.) With that said, I did live outside of Stuttgart, actually closer to Schorndorf, for a year in the late 80s, and the Swaben make a number of nice wines.
As regards the boutique winemakers, that was one of the things that I always liked about Germany when I lived there. I drank local wines at home, but if I went on a weekend trip, even for a relatively short distance, I might not be able to get my local wine on the trip & would have to try something new. That was always fun.
A note on linguistic & legal differences: First of all, I invite anybody knowledgeable in German law to correct me if I'm wrong on this. In America, we have an offense called "public intoxication." Not a particularly serious offense, but it sounds pretty stern. In Germany, if my translation is correct, it's called "public over-enjoyment of alcohol." Now, that doesn't sound nearly as bad, does it? lol
Hello Spats!
Public intoxication? Guess our proper term is life style and it is no offence
The sparkling wine might have been Prosecco. It still is an "in" drink.
Regensburg! I am living not far from there, actually. However, it is far enough not to get Thurn und Taxis beer, here. There are so many breweries.
I made a new discovery that I will share. There is a bio brewery called Riedenburger. They brew some ecologic beer out of some forgotten medieval crops one has nor heared of for a long time. Do not ask me for an English translation. It is simply cerial that was available in the medieval times to produce some malt.
They have a website: www.emmerbier.de
I am having one, right now