My sc
hon almost stubborn habit of drinking local wines in all the places I go on my travels is often met with difficulties, sometimes even with incomprehension in restaurants. This already happened to me on my trip through Saale-Unstrut, now back in Saxony. I stayed at the foot of the vineyards of Radebeul - with a direct view of the beautifully situated vineyard. As a red wine drinker, I had to reach for the white several times if I wanted to have a local growth in my glass. When I asked almost indignantly for a local red wine (the menu included Beaujolais, Californian, Australian, Italian, but no Saxon), I was told that "this is a white wine region".
But then - almost at the end of the stay - there was still a dry red, this edition Elbflorenz, a cuvée of Dornfelder and Regent from Schloss Wackerbarth. It is probably not exactly what a "discerning" wine drinker would first pour. 
would pour at first. But I have no inhibitions in this respect, I often enjoy what the "high wine culture" - not infrequently unjustly - ignores or even rejects, I often have the feeling that it is only to demonstrate that I am a "real, true" wine connoisseur.
"Here, where counts used to reside and where the court of Augustus the Strong celebrated lavish parties, Europe's first adventure winery welcomes you," I was told on my first day in the Dresden region. Somehow - I admit it - I fell in love with the wine region of "Elbflorenz - which towers over the city - during the few days in Radebeul, if only because of its beautiful location. Also in its wines? Unfortunately, there was no time for a thorough wine tour, so I had to make do with "chance encounters" regarding the wine. First it was a Goldriesling - a grape variety that is actually only grown in Saxony. The acquaintance was not simply benevolent, but genuinely taken with it. A speciality - also in the taste picture -, which quickly reached me, even in fleeting enjoyment.
But Saxony is not exactly one of the top regions in the German wine scene. I already made this experience a few years ago on my tour of Saxony. I read benevolently in wine forums, for example: "...there are now a few quite decent wines...". Unfortunately, I can't comment much more than that. So now I'll say something about this red, which I was served at a banquet. A banquet wine, or a gastro wine: fruity, not exciting, but a good companion through the evening, a very nice consumer wine that doesn't offend, one is tempted to say. But even a "consumer wine" can be good, very good; it can give pleasure, a lot of pleasure; it can even say more about a wine region than the so-called top wines, which are oriented towards some (usually far away) models.
I am grateful to the host organiser (not a wine event) that I was allowed to spend the evening with the wine: despite all the "pleasantness", it had a remarkable spectrum of aromas, from cherries to almonds, a southern (Mediterranean) touch, a velvety structure and a lot of genuine, well-structured "inner" warmth, far from the boredom often found in gastro wines. I, for one, had my fun and cannot understand all those restaurants that quickly and thoroughly reach into the popular box (mostly foreign reds) when it comes to red wine. At 10 euros (ex farm), the wine is definitely competitive even in good restaurants.