Grosse Weine – Unser Leben / Grand Wines – Our Lives is a wonderful coffee table book, which Wilhelm Weil produced as a birthday gift for his friend and right hand man, Weingut Robert Weil’s Deputy Managing Director, Jochen Becker-Köhn. Along with other wine friends, I contributed to the book.
The Story Behind the Book
2 years ago, I received a package from Wilhelm Weil, with a bottle of his outstanding ultra-premium wines, and 2 sets of Skat cards, which had “Weingut Robert Weil” in the light-blue “Robert Weil label color” on the back.
See also:
Deputy Managing Director Jochen Becker-Köhn and Export Director Nicolas Pfaff of Weingut Robert Weil in Singapore
Skat is arguably the most popular German card game. It was developed in the early 1980s in Altenburg in Thiringia, Germany, based on the three-player game of Tarock and the four-player game of Schafkopf. As a student, I used to play Skat a couple of times per week in the evening.
In a letter, Wilhelm Weil explained why he had sent me the wine bottle and the Skat cards and what his plan was: His right hand man and close friend for many, many years, Jochen Becker-Köhn, was turning 60 in August 2015 and his idea was to put together a picture book for him, with pictures from people who know Jochen, drinking Weingut Robert Weil wine and playing Skat with the Weil Skat cards. Wilhelm Weil invited me and Annette to support the project.
My Photo Submissions
Well, I found it a great idea. In the following months, wherever I travelled, I was looking for an opportunity to shoot a picture for the Jochen Becker-Köhn book. I managed to submit two photos and both made it into the book.
The first one was taken in Singapore, with the famous Marina Bay Sands Hotel in the back.
The second one was taken in Montreux, at the 2014 Digital Wine Communications Conference, with Jancis Robinson.
The Book
Recently, when I arrived in my Frankfurt Home for the 3 fall tours of ombiasy WineTours (Germany-South, Germany-North and Bordeaux), I found a copy of the book in the mail.
The book contains more than 200 photos, including my 2 submissions.
You find a selection of the photos on the web site of Weingut Wilhelm Weil in the "Up-to-date" column under the heading: A hand of Skat, played around the world with cards from Weingut Robert Weil! (August 23, 2015) and on the facebook page of Weingut Wilhelm Weil.
schiller-wine: Related Postings
Kiedrich: Visit of the Basilica of Saint Valentine and of Weingut Robert Weil - Germany-North Wine Tour by ombiasy (2014)
Christian G.E. Schiller's Review of the Book: Ralf Frenzel (ed.) - Riesling, Robert Weil. Tre Torri, Wiesbaden, Germany, 2013, in: Journal of Wine Economics, Volume 9, 2014, No. 1, Cambridge University Press
Deputy Managing Director Jochen Becker-Köhn and Export Director Nicolas Pfaff of Weingut Robert Weil in Singapore
Weingut Robert Weil, Kiedrich, Rheingau, Germany: Super Sommerfest/Summer Party 2014
Weingut Robert Weil Goes Facebook, Germany
German Riesling and International Grape Varieties – Top Wine Makers Wilhelm Weil and Markus Schneider at Kai Buhrfeindt’s Grand Cru in Frankfurt am Main, Germany
Visiting Wilhelm Weil at his Weingut Robert Weil in Kiedrich, Germany
Tasting with Wilhelm Weil the 2010 Weingut Weil Wines in Kiedrich, Germany
The German Winemakers at the 4th Riesling Rendezvous in Seattle, USA
The 2nd International Riesling Symposium in the Rheingau, Germany
Steffen Christmann (Weingut A. Christmann) and Wilhelm Weil (Weingut Robert Weil) Presented the New Wine Classification of the VDP, Germany