Monthly Archives: December 2014

Hiking, Luxembourg, Nutshell

Circuit Cremant and Auto Pedestre 1: A Nutshell on TWO Trails

Trail Names:

Circuit Cremant

Auto-Pedestre 1

Trail Types: 2 short distance circuits;

Cremant: Short hiking circuit; paved, well maintained and marked.

Auto-Pedestre 1: Short hiking circuit, some parts paved, some hard-packed, some soft dirt; some sections marked, but markings missing in a couple of crucial spots.

Lengths:

Cremant: 4.6 km/2.8 miles

Auto-Pedestre 1: 8 km/5 miles

Convenient to:

Luxembourg, Luxembourg, with local public transportation

Trier, Germany, with a car

Markings:

Cremant: Flute on a white pentagon, on red background with green edge

Auto-Pedestre 1: Black “1” on a blue triangle on white rectangular sign

(Note: The photo’s blue hexagon with a yellow rectangle is the sign for the Sentier de la Moselle, described below.)

 

Signage for Auto Pedstre 1 and Cremant Trails
Signage for Auto Pedstre 1 and Cremant Trails

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France, Hiking

Hiking Around Hautvillers

I made a pilgrimage to Hautvillers. Champagne was born there, as anyone who loves sparkling wines as much as I do will know. Sooner or later, serious champagne aficionados will want to visit to pay their respects to the life’s work of Dom Perignon, a monk dedicated to studying and producing good local wines.

Hautvillers and its Abbey
Hautvillers and its Abbey

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France, Wines

Wine Notes: Champagne

What I Learned:

 Champagne can only come from Champagne, the region, about 90 miles from Paris. In spite of its proximity to “gay Paris,” champagne did not enjoy great fame until fairly recently. Although grapes were cultivated in the region as early as Roman times, the often cold, foggy climate worked to ensure that grape ripening was not consistent from year to year. Hence the wine was not always good, or plentiful.

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Austria, Hiking

The Wachau: Wine Experiences along Austria’s Danube

The Danube River brings to mind not only the Blue Danube Waltz, that compositional blend of romantic, gently swirling, rhythmic phrases – punctuated by the occasional dramatic phrase – it is also evocative of Lower Austria and Vienna, a graceful and refined area that includes great art in all forms, and wine, of course. Since wine country hiking here combines all these elements, it fell on the must-do list.

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Austria, Wines

Wine Notes: Austria’s Wachau Wine Region

What I Learned:

Austria has 20 wine regions, one of which is the Wachau, situated along the banks of the Danube, upriver from Vienna.

Wine production in the Wachau region dates to at least the 1130s.

The geography helps to make grape-growing possible. The ancient Danube River helped created the loess soils, and now serves to moderate temperatures; the bowls formed by the steep hill slopes (called Ried), shelter vines from winds and capture the sun’s heat.

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