|
|
|
| Current Issue |
|
|
| Resources |
|
|
|
Bearing Stubborn Fruit: The German Character of Missouri's Wine Region
| Article
# : |
12145 |
|
|
Section : |
CULTURE
|
| Issue
Date : |
3 / 1994 |
3,425 Words |
| Author
: |
Daniel W. Marshall
Daniel W. Marshall is a free-lance writer based in Missouri
whose most recent article, "Feeding the Spirits: Minnesota's
Wild Rice Harvest," appeared in the August 1995 Culture
section of The World & I. |
On the third Sunday in March, knowing passengers begin to salivate when Amtrak No. 358 squeezes between Kallmeyer Bluff and the Missouri River, rumbles over Frene Creek, and rolls to a stop at Gutenberg Street in the historic German town of Hermann, Missouri. Just a block away, in the Festhalle of Hermannhof Winery, a panel of retired sausagemakers, food editors, and representatives of the Missouri State Pork Board prepares to sample over 150 professional and amateur entries; award ribbons in sixteen categories; select the Best Wurst of the Show from the fifteen varieties of German sausage, including leberwurst, blutwurst, schwartenmagen; and induct new members into the Wurstfest Hall of Fame.
This is Hermann's Wurstfest. As the day unfolds, tourists consume over one ton of sausage and countless gallons of locally made wine. The music of the Loehnig Family German Band encourages the festivities. On First Street, the Rivertown Restaurant serves 150 pounds of hot German potato salad and Die Hermann Werks peddles souvenirs from the fatherland. History buffs tour the 1840s brick homes of Deutschheim State Historic Site and the spacious wine cellars of Stone Hill winery. A few miles from the town, the tasting room of the Adam Puchta Winery is busy. Customers select a bottle and relax around picnic tables or on blankets, reveling in the spring beauty of the Frene Creek valley.
Parallel to the railroad tracks, St. Paul's United Church of Christ sits prominently on a cliff above the Missouri. A golden rooster perches on the steeple, impervious to the festive commotion. Just below the church, at the intersection of First and Market streets, a large bridge across the Missouri River directs traffic from Route 19 into town from the north. This day, Hermann, a town notable for a little light industry, a wine industry that once flourished and is again reborn, and its German heritage, is a magnet for tourists.
Wurstfest is but one of a number of traditional German festivals celebrated here annually. Others include Christ Kindl Markt, the Great Stone Hill Grape Stomp, Nouveau Day, and Maifest. The biggest celebration of all is held in the fall. Hermann's Octoberfest draws thousands to the town and derives from a tradition of Weinfest that was celebrated from 1848 to 1920, suppressed by Prohibition, and resurrected, as Octoberfest, in 1968. Since that time, more than thirty wineries have opened or reopened in Missouri, four in Hermann.
Shadows eventually fill the amphitheater of hills in which the town is nestled. The bell on the German
...
Read Full Article
Look for this article in Ask.com
|
|
