Otto Born's Weinstuben, Meissen

Somehow two of the signs I posted lately had something to do with wine and spirits, and so does the first mosaic of 2010. Maybe it is a secondary effect of the glass of Port I've been enjoying over the past couple of evenings to fight a cold? (when I was around ten years old I had a bad cold. Our doctor came to visit me, prescribed a couple of tablets and added I should be given a freshly pressed orange juice in the morning and a glass of Port or Sauternes -a lovely sweet wine wine- in the evening).
Anyway, doorstep mosaics are pretty rare in Germany, at least in the eastern part. That's why I was happy to find this one when my in-laws took me to Meissen during our Christmas holidays. It is an appropriate one as well as the town, which is famous around the world for its elaborate porcelain, is right in the Elbe Valley wine region. The vineyards, planted on hills overlooking the river, stretch from Pillnitz, near Dresden, to Diesbar-Seußlitz, north of Meissen and cover an area of around 450 ha, making the wine region one of Europe's smallest and northernmost. Winemaking in that part of Saxony was first mentioned in the 929 Chronicle of Bishop Thiedmar von Merseburg. As for the vineyards on the hills opposite the castle of Meissen, they first appear in an official document from 1161. Needless to say this wine bar is much more recent but I wouldn't be able to date it. The use of the possessive apostrophe is certainly unusual.

Otto Born's
Weinstuben



Location: Elbstraße, Meißen, Sachsen / Picture taken on: 20/12/2009