The largest baroque building in Europe is in Wurzburg, this is the Residentz. It was the head of the government for the area before the first unification of Germany. Before leaving I had read on-line that there are tours of its wine cellar and had made a mental note that there should be one around 15:00. Sure enough there was a sign outside offering the tours, although they were only in German. We decide to brave it. Scott expressed great confidence in my German abilities and the fact that I could translate for him (I was less confident). We cough up our six euros which includes a glass of wine and head into the cellar of the Residentz. It is dark and smells moldy and has scary steps down. What we enter is a candle lit cellar chock-full of giant casks of wine. The largest held something like 9,000 liters about 12,000 bottles of wine or 1,000 cases! We received a glass of Riesling and learned about the cellars, or rather I learned about the cellars – I also learned that I will never have a job as a
simultaneous translator, phew that is hard work. Basically the cellar was devised to hold enough wine for the whole town, and there were casks upon casks of wine down the passageways, all lit with candles. The enormous casks are no longer used, but wine is still made and stored in the more modern part where the casks hold up to 6,000 liters. The wooden barrels themselves cost 13,000 Euros each and last anywhere from 80-100 years. Finally we were brought into the room where the wine was sold to the merchants back in the early 1800’s. There was a rhyme on the wall that stated that knocking on kegs was strictly forboden. The reason being that the prices for the wine were not set and were haggled over, a smart merchant would run around quickly through the keg room while waiting for the cellar master and knock on the kegs. This way he would know how much wine there was to sell, if most of the kegs were full he could offer a lower price and if they were empty he would offer more. Despite only getting a quarter of the information to Scott, he really enjoyed just walking through the incredible kegs. And, of course, we did what any good tourist should do and bought a nice Riesling for home, I will have to order some nice German sausages and do the meal up right when we drink it.
The largest baroque building in Europe is in Wurzburg, this is the Residentz. It was the head of the government for the area before the first unification of Germany. Before leaving I had read on-line that there are tours of its wine cellar and had made a mental note that there should be one around 15:00. Sure enough there was a sign outside offering the tours, although they were only in German. We decide to brave it. Scott expressed great confidence in my German abilities and the fact that I could translate for him (I was less confident). We cough up our six euros which includes a glass of wine and head into the cellar of the Residentz. It is dark and smells moldy and has scary steps down. What we enter is a candle lit cellar chock-full of giant casks of wine. The largest held something like 9,000 liters about 12,000 bottles of wine or 1,000 cases! We received a glass of Riesling and learned about the cellars, or rather I learned about the cellars – I also learned that I will never have a job as a 
simultaneous translator, phew that is hard work. Basically the cellar was devised to hold enough wine for the whole town, and there were casks upon casks of wine down the passageways, all lit with candles. The enormous casks are no longer used, but wine is still made and stored in the more modern part where the casks hold up to 6,000 liters. The wooden barrels themselves cost 13,000 Euros each and last anywhere from 80-100 years. Finally we were brought into the room where the wine was sold to the merchants back in the early 1800’s. There was a rhyme on the wall that stated that knocking on kegs was strictly forboden. The reason being that the prices for the wine were not set and were haggled over, a smart merchant would run around quickly through the keg room while waiting for the cellar master and knock on the kegs. This way he would know how much wine there was to sell, if most of the kegs were full he could offer a lower price and if they were empty he would offer more. Despite only getting a quarter of the information to Scott, he really enjoyed just walking through the incredible kegs. And, of course, we did what any good tourist should do and bought a nice Riesling for home, I will have to order some nice German sausages and do the meal up right when we drink it.
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