We're now on the Rhine, in wine country, in particular Riesling country. We visited Eberbach Monastery which was started by Bernard of Clairveaux in 1136 with Sistertian monks, who began making wine in order to fund the monastery. It is no longer a Monastery but is now the largest vineyard in Germany.
Our visit started with a tasting of 3 Rieslings, dry, semi-dry and sweet; all delicious. Held in what was originally the hospital and hospice when the monks were here, then a barrel room and now just a display room used for wine tastings like ours.
Next to the tasting room is a museum store of bottles of wine dating back to the 19th century. And around the corner was the room known as the Kabinett where the best wines form the best vineyard were kept. This wine was so good that the German wine authority decided that top quality wines would be given the classification “Kabinett”.
Then we walked past the cloister with the original library across it, into the Chapter House, so called because each day the monks would gather there to listen to a chapter of St Benedict’s book of orders for his monks being read.
The monks slept in this long room, on a wooden pallet on the floor, perhaps with a straw mattress but no blanket allowed and with windows with only a wooden shutter to keep the wind out. Averagee life expectancy was 32!
There were several old wine presses, of which this is the most recent, dated 1801.
The monks’ dining room, now used on occasions for parties and special events. The cupboard was used originally for storing parchments that were copied by the monks in the first period of their time there. The panel on the door shows a boar (German Eber) standing on the edge of a stream (Bach) which is the origin of the monastery’s name.
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