Sampling the
wine at Eberbach
If the reader has ever made a journey on the Rhine
through
the sunny Rheingau he must have passed the ancient town of Eltville,
formerly
the summer residence of the Archbishop of Mainz: on a wooded height to
the
right behind Hattenheim are the ruins of what was once the rich and
famous
Cistercian monastery of Eberbach. Many of the visitors to Wiesbaden
make
excursions to this historic spot. Within these walls which have stood
some
eight hundred years, many Archbishops of Mainz, many
Rhine-grafs,
–
for
example those of the Katzenelnbogen family – and a
large number of
monks
have found their last resting-place. The cellars, which to-day contain
such
famed products of the Prussian Domäne as the valuable
Steinberger
cabinet-wine, were in earlier times filled by the worthy cloister
fathers
with the wines obtained from the surrounding hills. While stern
historical
fact seems to prove that the founder, Archbishop Adelbert of Mainz, had
Soon
to break up the monastery on account of the dissolute habits acquired
by
the monks, legend at the same time asserts that an essential endowment
of
the humbler Eberbach brethern was an exquisite palate for wine-tasting.
On one occasion two of the monks, each with a full can of
wine,
sat beside a cask of striking rotundity, whose noble contents might
have
roused the sweet singer of Israel to strike his harp in rapture. It was
admittedly wine worth registering as of the very finest quality, but
both
discovered a peculiar flavour not usually present in the finer wines
produced
from the vineyards of the monastery. The one brother thought he could
detect
a slight metallic taste; to the delicate palate of the other it seemed
more
like that of leather. Shaking their heads both went to the mighty cask,
and
filled their vessels. Again the one maintained he felt the taste of
iron,
while the other as stubbornly insisted he felt the taste of leather.
Their
plodding monkish zeal was now increased by the fire of the wine, and
their
eagerness induced them to fill another, and yet another can. With
increasing
stubbornness the one maintained he still felt the flavour of iron,
while
the other held that this excellent quality of wine had a characteristic
flavour
of leather. In order to bring the astonishing matter to some conclusion
this
worthy pair in their intense thirst for knowledge emptied the
full-bellied
cask to the last drop.
And behold, there at the bottom of the cask the
intoxicated
pair could see a tiny key with a small leather thong attached to it.
The
unsteady hands of the brother who attended to the cellars must have
dropped
it there – how or when it was difficult to make
out.
Then the worthy
pair
smiled and leered at each other in a knowing way. With difficulty they
staggered
towards their cells, muttering the while of 'tashte of iron' and
'tashte
of leather,' and both in the highest degree elated over this convincing
proof
of the exquisite quality of the palates they possessed for sampling
wine.
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