Commemorating Boozing Dates

Most beer drinkers know about the German purity decree for their favorite brew. It isn't actually German, since it was Duke Wilhelm IV of Bavaria who ordered on April 23, 1516, the Reinheitsgebot: zu kainem pier merer stüchh dan allain gersten, hopfen un wasser genommen werdn (to any beer no more ingredients than barley, hops, and water shall be taken and used). Well, they simply forgot the yeast. Without it, you can't brew beer. Today, we celebrate April 23 as German Beer Day.

The 1516 decree is not the first attempt to keep boozing headache-free. Eighteen years earlier, in 1498, the Imperial Diet met in Freiburg to make peace with the Swiss who hadn't accepted the newly established Imperial court and, above all, had stubbornly refused to pay the Imperial tax, i.e., the common Pfennig. 

The diet failed to put the Confederates back in their place; on the contrary, one year later, when the Emperor wanted to bring the Swiss to their senses, his army suffered a crushing defeat at the Battle of Dornach, so Maximilian had to give way. 

However, the assembled princes did not leave the Freiburg diet empty-handed, for on August 24, 1498, they passed the satzung unnd ordnung über die weyne (rules and ordinance about wine). It limits, in particular, the amount of sulfur used to stabilize wine, already knowing that high concentrations of this element caused headaches.

satzung unnd ordnung über die weyne of 1498

Why do I write about all this? The above story came to my mind when I recently visited the city of Nibelungen, Worms. There I noticed yellow-white banners flying in front of the cathedral. Nothing exceptional for these are the colors of the Catholic Church. However, when I came nearer, I read: 500 Jahre Riesling-Urkunde von Pfeddersheim (Documentary evidence of 500 years of Riesling cultivation at Pfeddersheim). In this document dated November 11, 1511, it is mentioned: Item ein halben morgen riesling wingart im Funtdaill (among other things [about] a quarter of an acre Riesling vine-garden in Funtdaill, i.e., a plot of land with a fountain). Today, this vineyard still exists, as does the Riesling.

Riesling is one of my favorite grapes, only topped by the Chasselas
known in Baden as Gutedel and in Wallis, Switzerland as Fendant

More impressive, and more human, is that people always find a reason to celebrate, with or without pretext, like the Weinfest in Emmendingen.

This year, in Worms, November 11 is not only Saint Martin's feast, with children carrying their lanterns around and adults eating the traditional goose. It is also the usual day the Carnival season opens at precisely 11 minutes past 11 a.m. (even in 2011). It will also be the 500th anniversary of Riesling cultivation. Another reason to boozing with ... Riesling.

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