Cloisters

The first bottle of 2015 Gewürztraminer from Austria (the people at reference 3), retailed by Buckfast Abbey, noticed at reference 1, has now been sampled, being taken down in two shifts, with a spot of ITV3. Entirely satisfactory, and I may well get some more should opportunity arise.

This being our second monastic wine (the first having been from the people at reference 2) from the middle of Europe, and one can only suppose that the monastic tradition is stronger there than it is here. But one also supposes that they must have a similar problem with communities aging in grand premises which have become too large for them. Perhaps they all go in for tonic wine, tourists and conferences in the same way as Buckfast Abbey.

I wasn't able to find this very wine on their website, but I did find the picture of a church included above, I think the one attached to the monastery, rather grander looking than Buckfast Abbey.

Reference 1: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/2019/10/in-praise-of-forest-inn.html.

Reference 2: https://www.kloster-neustift.it/en/.

Reference 3: https://www.stift-klosterneuburg.at/.

Reference 4: https://www.linguee.com/english-german/search?query=stift. From which we learn that a stift as well as being a pen, pencil or pin can also be a monastery. Must be something that I am missing here in these two suspiciously similar names, apart from the form kloster-stift being a bit repetitious. But I can say that 'cloister' and 'close' come from different Latin roots, that is to say 'claustrum' and 'clausum', despite the appearance of the thing.