Dining with Friends in Times of the Coronavirus Lockdown using Zoom

Pictures: Dining with Friends in Times of the Coronavirus Lockdown using Zoom

A few days ago we had our first online dinner, using the Zoom app. There were 5 of us in three different locations. The dinner started at 7:30 pm and lasted 6 hours. We all enjoyed the online dinner very much. The Zoom app is a fantastic tool to allow social contacts in times of social distancing.

Restaurant 360 Grad

The food was from the 1 Star Michelin Restaurant 360 Grad in Limburg, about an hour from Frankfurt, and the wines were from Cool Climate, a wine store in Frankfurt specialising in natural wines,.

Pictures: Chef Alexander Hohlwein and his Partner in Life and Business Rebekka Weickert

The food came in a large Restaurant 360 Grad Foodbox, containing the semi-finished, cold food, mainly in vacuum bags, and instructions from Chef Alexander Hohlwein on how to finalize the preparation of the food. Annette spent 10 to 20 minutes in the kitchen before each course, while I was opening the next wine.

Pictures: Restaurant 360 Grad Foodbox

The dinner was orchestrated by Dirk Eisel who is quickly emerging as the guru of online dining and wining.

Picture: Dirk Eisel and Christian Schiller. See: Winemaker Dinner with Christoph Wolber of New-wave Producer Weingut Wasenhaus, Baden, at Schaumahl, Offenbach/ Frankfurt, 16 Points Gault Millau, Germany

3-Course Dinner

This was a 3-course dinner. We had a choice between 3 to 4 options for each course. We all took the sushi to start with. Annette and I had veal with asparagus as main course. The others had fish. Annette and I ended the meal with a dessert, the others with a cheese plat.

Pictures: The Dinner

Thank you and Zoom Happy Hour 

The Restaurant 360 Grad Foodbox Menu that Chef Alexander Hohlwein and Rebekka Weickert offert last weekend (easter weekend) was a big success. They sold more than 100 foodboxes as Alexander and Rebekka say here in a facebook message to their clients.

For the coming weekend, Annette and I were invited to a Zoom Happy Hour with friends in the Washington DC area.

schiller-wine: Related Postings

Announcement: Upcoming ombiasy Wine Tours 2020 - (1) Alsace and Germany South, (2) Rhône Valley, (3) Bordeaux and (4) Germany: Christmas Market, Wine, Concert Tour

Postponed: Alsace and Germany-South Tour May 2020 by Ombiasy WineTours

Postponed: Rhône Valley Tour June 2020 by ombiasy WineTours

Annual Riesling Party at the Schiller Residence in Washington DC, USA (2019)

Winemaker Dinner with Christoph Wolber of New-wave Producer Weingut Wasenhaus, Baden, at Schaumahl, Offenbach/ Frankfurt, 16 Points Gault Millau, Germany

The Michelin-starred Restaurants in Frankfurt/ Germany (Michelin Deutschland 2020)

Happy Easter and Passover 2020

Pictures: Annette and Christian Schiller in Frankfurt, Germany, Easter 2020

Dear wine friends,

I want to wish you and your family a Happy Easter and Passover. These are difficult times and Easter and Passover 2020 are different from all previous holiday celebrations we had in our lifetime.

With a heavy heart I cancelled all wine tours programmed for 2020. The Covid-19 pandemic is racing around the world and becoming more serious as the days go by. I knew the virus would spread but I can’t fully wrap my brain around it yet. Slowly but surely it dawns on me that we all will be in this for quite some time and that group travel will probably not possible for the rest of this year.

The tours scheduled for this year will take place in 2021. At this point and in view of this unprecedented situation I can not yet offer an exact date for rescheduling the tours but I keep you in the loop as soon as I have firm plans.

I use these quiet times to do research and to plan tours to new destinations: the Loire Valley, Austria, and to the cradle of wine: the beautiful country of Georgia.

Let us all be responsible and taking precautions not to get sick.

Celebrate these days with family and friends (digitally) and stay healthy.

Best
Annette

Annette Schiller, Diplom-Volkswirt
ombiasy | PR
WINE tours | education | events
Washington DC - Frankfurt am Main
T: +1 (703) 459.7513
T: +49 (0) 177.337.0281
aschiller@ombiasypr.com
web: ombiasypr.com
blog: schiller-wine.blogspot.com - Finalist Millésima Blog Awards 2015
Professional Member of the American Wine Society - AWS
Founding Member of the WFK Hochheim, Wine Brotherhood of Hochheim, Rheingau, Germany

schiller-wine: Related Postings

Announcement: Upcoming ombiasy Wine Tours 2020 - (1) Alsace and Germany South, (2) Rhône Valley, (3) Bordeaux and (4) Germany: Christmas Market, Wine, Concert Tour

Postponed: Alsace and Germany-South Tour May 2020 by Ombiasy WineTours

Postponed: Rhône Valley Tour June 2020 by ombiasy WineTours

Annual Riesling Party at the Schiller Residence in Washington DC, USA (2019)

Postponed: Rhône Valley Tour June 2020 by ombiasy WineTours

Pictures: At the Pont du Gard in the Southern Rhône Valley

Annette sent out this e-mail to those who signed up for the tour on March 31, 2020.

Dear All,

it is with a very, very heavy heart that I have to inform you that I have to cancel the tour scheduled for June.

This is not at all my personal decision. The decision was made for me by the Covid-19 pandemic and how this is spreading and becoming more serious as the days go by and impacting the entire globe. Believe me I was so much looking forward to the travel with you to the beautiful Rhône Valley but it would be totally irresponsible to hang on to the possibility of traveling in early June.

It is incredible how fast and violently the virus races around the world. It is just 17 days ago when I wrote you that there are 2,300 cases in France. Looking at the numbers in France and Germany today and at the situation in the US - my email of March 14th sounds like a message from another world.

At this point and in view of this unprecedented situation I can not even offer an exact date for rescheduling the tour. However I can assure you that this tour will take place with exactly the same program at a later date, preferably in the fall 2020. When the time comes to think about a new date, I would love to discuss the date with all of you so that it would fit into everyone’s schedule.

Let me know if you prefer to have your deposit payment refunded or if you want to leave the downpayment for the future tour.

Let us all be responsible and taking precautions not to get sick.

Stay healthy - that’s the most important issue right now.

Best

Annette
Annette Schiller, Diplom-Volkswirt

ombiasy | PR
WINE tours | education | events
Washington DC - Frankfurt am Main
T: +1 (703) 459.7513
T: +49 (0) 177.337.0281
wine.blogspot.com - Finalist Millésima Blog Awards 2015
Professional Member of the American Wine Society - AWS
Founding Member of the WFK Hochheim, Wine Brotherhood of Hochheim, Rheingau, Germany

schiller-wine: Related Postings

Announcement: Upcoming ombiasy Wine Tours 2020 - (1) Alsace and Germany South, (2) Rhône Valley, (3) Bordeaux and (4) Germany: Christmas Market, Wine, Concert Tour

Reminder: Rhône Valley Tour by ombiasy WineTours in June 2020

Annual Riesling Party at the Schiller Residence in Washington DC, USA (2019)