I spent all of last week in Germany with a tight and full schedule. On the 20th June I flew to Duesseldorf and arrived at my base close to Siegen in the afternoon. A week before that, I had sent a pallet of mixed wines from Greece to Germany (one pallet carries roughly 600 bottles), a total of 30 labels from 10 different winemakers. I needed quite a few hours on Saturday and Sunday to group some of the wines into different parcels, deciding where to show which wines.
Monday morning I made my way to Montabaur, an hours drive by car, to catch the ICE train to Munich. The train ride was quite pleasant and I used the 4 hours to prepare myself for the week. My appointment was with a wine merchant at a very central location in Munich. It is so important to meet face to face – it is the only way to really learn what personalised services one might be able to offer. After about 45 minutes I left some samples and made my way back to the Hauptbahnhof (central railway station) with suggestions and comments received. I waited a couple of hours before taking the ICE back to Montabaur, arriving at my base at 12:30 pm. I worked for another hour on the PC before hitting the bed.
The next morning I took a two and a half hours drive to Kempen to meet with a potential client. The meeting went very well, again I left my samples there. Usually I try and taste the wines with the customer, in order to guide through. But Monday and Tuesday were exceptions, as both times the time schedule did not allow for this. I drove back in the afternoon and arrived in Siegen in the early evening. Samples had to be selected and packed for the next 3 days. The boot of my car was full with wines by the time I was finished.
