#14 Further Roots of a Re-Start

The "a-ha" moment for Riesling wine.

Before Google, in the late 1990’s and early 2000’s, the Internet was still new to many people. Simple, quirky websites could offer up gems that you found out about by word-of-mouth. One of these websites was Chowhound.

At the time, I was a traveling salesman. Whenever my side-kick and I planned an out-of-town trip, we knew we would need to find a few places to eat. Our go-to was Chowhound. It was a no-frills bulletin board with posts about the best, out-of-the-way places to eat, reviewed by passionate amateur food-lovers.

We were planning a trip to Las Vegas, and the Chowhound users highly-recommended a place called Lotus of Siam, a Thai restaurant on the outskirts of town in a strip mall.

After waiting for 30 minutes, we were seated at at table with a plastic tablecloth. The waiter put a wine list in front of us. There were hundreds of wines to choose from, mostly white wines like Riesling and Gewürztraminer, from Germany, Austria and France. No Thai restaurant I knew had a wine list like this.

I had never tasted Riesling before. I knew little about wine. At random, I chose a German Riesling that seemed like it was in the right price range.

I will never forgot that wine. In fairness, it is true that moments like this are often about the context of the situation, as much as they are about the wine. You are out at a unpretentious restaurant, unexpectedly eating amazing food with an amazing wine and a friend that appreciates the occasion. You do not forget it.

Later I learned that I had chosen a wine from one of the most-respected Riesling producers in the world. It was reasonably-priced. The Dönnhoff wines became the ones I wanted to emulate.