Good Grape Wine Company

May 2 2006

A Little German & May Wine

German wine has me a bit fascinated—mostly because I intermittentlysee quirky, oddly compelling commercials for a German Riesling that features ofall things—a pint-sized German in madcap situations.

 Interestingly, Tom atFermentation had a post a week or so ago calling –with slight elbow in the proverbialribs—Ohio the hotbed for Wine Bloggers. That might be true based on the quality quotient for the Buckeye stateand interesting blogs. And, anCincinnati, Ohio ad agency can also take credit for creating the “Little German”campaign for winery Schmitt Sohne. And,in a “slap-your-head, can it get any better” moment, the ad agency is in anarea of Cincinnati called “Over-the-Rhine.”

Thelittle German campaign employs a pint-sized man in lederhosen who isphotographed in various predicaments, along with double-edged slogans such as,"Grab a little German in the wine aisle" and "Put a littleGerman in the fridge."

Thecampaign is a hit, particularly with women. Atlanta-based Schmitt Sohne Inc.,the German wine maker’s U.S. distributor, reports a 24 percent sales increasesince the campaign began. The wine’s market share has climbed from 44 percentto 49 percent. That’s not the secret either.

Theweb site, for its part, plays the Little German schtick to great effect andincludes a fan club for those so inclined. You can check it out here.

Thereal reason for the post today, is actually not Little Germans, but the proudGerman tradition of May wine.

Maywine, used to celebrate May Days, has a slightly different meaning country bycountry, but generally May Days is a “people uprising” kind of event.

Maywine is also the drink that is used in the Pagan/Wiccan celebration called theBeltane Circle typically celebrated on May 1st. But, ahem, we’ll leave that for somebody else to explore. I’m pretty sure that in the days beforeGoogle, you wouldn’t have been able to figure that out by using the DeweyDecimal System.

Accordingto Wikipedia, May Wine or Maiwein is:

Maiwein(also known as May Wine and Waldmeisterbowle) is the name of a German winetraditionally drunk on the May Day holiday.

Thedrink is made by flavoring a German white wine with Waldmeister (woodruff), afragrant herb thatgrows in forests. Since woodruff is very slightly poisonous, some common senseshould be applied in its use; 3 g of woodruff per litre of maiwein arecompletely safe.

Insome recipes, carbonated water, sugar or sparklingwine is added to the mixture to create a punch.

Itis also produced in German culture regions of the UnitedStates.

MayWine Recipe

2bottles of dry white wine

2cups strawberry liqueor

5thin orange slices

and/or

1cup sliced strawberries

12sprigs of woodruff

1teaspoon sugar (more or less, as preferred)

Edibleflowers (to be added after all ingredients have
been mixed
together)

Directions

Soakthe dried woodruff overnight in the wine.

Addthe rest of the ingredients, stir with a wooden
spoon, and let it
steep for an hour or so.

Servevery cold, with edible flowers floating atop in
the punch bowl.

Personally speaking, I’ll probably pop the cork on a Riesling, a wine that I really enjoy and also happens to be very food friendly.  The wiccan ceremony be damned. 

digg this | toast this! | add to del.icio.us | add to newsvine | add to furl | add to reddit |

Posted in. Permalink | Comments (1) | Print |