After 10 hours of driving, 5-6 paninos, 2-3 packages of peanut M&Ms, a few naps and probably a few too many pee breaks due to yours truly...Chiara and I, along with Giovanni (see lower left photo - that's Giovanni) and Anna, from the Consorzio Tutela Vini Soave, arrived in Dusseldorf...the location of the ProWein tasting, one of the world’s leading trade fairs for the wine and spirits industry.
Quick change at our hotel and then we were back on the road heading towards Maastricht in Holland for dinner at Cafe Sjiek.
Cafe Sjiek is owned by Robin Berben, who happens to be quite a fan of Coffele wines. Robin is also a total gentleman, fiercely charming and funny as hell without trying in the least...You honestly couldn't find someone more suited to run this bustling, yet perfectly quaint neighborhood cafe/bistro.
Robin is also a man with whom Chiara and I spent a very entertaining evening during the last Vinitaly wine fair in Verona. Someone once told me that nothing good ever happens after 2am...this person obviously never spent the wee hours of the morning with Robin Berben, his brother-in-law Franz (and one of Chiara's distributors) and their friend Pete.
To see some pictures that really visually capture what "An evening in Maastricht" and dinner at Cafe Sjiek is like...definitely check out http://www.newyorksocialdiary.com/node/694. Scroll down a bit and there is a picture of Robin as well.
The next day, after prepping and fully stocking the Consorzio stand with numerous bottles of Soave wines for ProWein, we met up with some of my friends from Germany for a few weissbiers. Great day for doing some outdoor bier drinking. Shockingly enough the photo of me kissing the little guy with the beard was taken before our afternoon bierfest.
Later that night, the Consorzio crew (including Arturo Stocchetti, the President of the Consorzio and owner of the Cantina di Castello winery) and my Dusseldorf crew had a tasty dinner at a new restaurant called "In Vino Veritas."
My friend Meike (beautiful blond with the cute little baby featured in one of the photos) appropriately chose this restaurant in honor of the occassion which brought us all to Dusseldorf - the ProWein fair.
By the end of our 3-4 hour dinner, Arturo (see middle photo on the right hand side) was chatting it up with the owner of the restaurant and we were treated to an enormous dessert plate of tiramisu, chocolate mousse and some other rich chocolatey concoction.
...and I wonder why I've gots a little more junk in the trunk.
- Zucca
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2 comments:
Your blog rocks!
How much more junk in the trunk are we talkin? You should try living in the midwest for a while... I think I'm now carrying around an extra trunk!
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