We Took a Risk

It’s easy to visit a tourism office and look through piles of flyers advertising tours, adventure activities, museums, and gastronomy. We even find it fun to use our translator app to read the event posters advertising concerts, festivals, and fairs. But stepping outside our comfort zone to actually go to those events has been a learning curve as we anxiously consider the cultural expectations, the attire, or most importantly, the language barriers.

While visiting the Alsace region of France, we TOOK A RISK. This region is well known for its wine production. There are vineyards all over the area that are mostly accessible by car. There are distributers who offer tastings and even a bus with stops at 6 little towns for people to walk and taste the wines at the shops.

We rented a car for 3 of our 21 days in this region with the hopes of visiting an actual vineyard as well as the outdoor Ecomuseum. So, when we read the advertisement for a Pique-Nique, we decided to register. It said, “Bring your lunch basket and the winegrower will offer tastings of his wines.” Getting to the vineyard was easy, getting out of the car to tour the vineyard and socialize with people in a foreign country was difficult.

The owners of the Domaine Gueth Winery greeted us personally with some English, then directed us where to place our personal picnic basket and where to queue for the tour. Of all the visitors, there were 4 people who were English speakers, 4 people who were German speakers, and the remaining 30-ish visitors spoke French. The tour would be provided in French, but the owner would supplement and answer our questions in English.

Thanks to Google Translate we used the new LIVE feature to follow along reasonably well as we learned about the amazing soil and water of this region. Then we learned how this family, in particular Muriel Gueth, uses organic methods that mirror their ancestors for wine production while other producers use additives and grape-blends to achieve their flavor profile. Muriel prides herself on creating Wines with a feminine touch. “My wines are a bit like my children. I bring them up to flourish, taking care of them… without ever imposing my choices on them.” Taken from her website and proudly told to us while we walked along through the vines themselves. The vineyard tour was fabulous but soon came time to Pique-Nique.

A dozen picnic tables were set up in a covered area and we had been assigned a table with two other couples. One couple spoke German/English. The other couple spoke French/German. Initially, the German/English couple acted as translators between us and the French/German couple. Then, we pulled out our phones and used another new feature on Google Translate for conversations. Though not perfect with the translations, it busted open the language barriers and allowed us to connect as real people, making friends in another country. The afternoon was spent eating the food we brought (salami, cheese, bread, veggies), observing the foods other people brought (sausages & steak for grilling, salads, etc.), drinking samples of wine provided by the hosts, and playing a fishing game.

It would have been easy to skip this event. It would have been easy to shy away and not engage with others because of language or cultural differences. But, because we took a risk, because the hosts were good at their event planning, and because we chose to gamble with our emotions we had the BEST day at a vineyard in France.

In the end, we have a permanent memory to take home even if we can’t access the Domaine Gueth wine at home.