Franken Ale and Friesian Eel
Northern Germany’s answer to lobster, and a true hybrid Riesling surprise.
Northern Germany’s answer to lobster, and a true hybrid Riesling surprise.
Jérôme Hainz is founder of BottleStops, a specialist tour operator offering authentic and lighthearted experiences of Germany's wines and wine culture. Throughout his travels, Jérôme is always on the hunt for delicious and distinctive food and wine pairings. Despite not being particularly spiritual, Jérôme firmly believes that he will be reborn as a white truffle.
Curing fish is a bit like baking cakes: unless one follows a particular recipe to the letter, the final result inevitably contains an element or three of surprise. Once in the oven, once in the brine, the window for intervention has passed – leaving time and temperature as the only remaining levers. I clearly lack the discipline to work with exact measurements (thus explaining my ban from baking birthday cakes), but I do enjoy the imprecise, historical art of preserving food with salt. Think: classic Sauerkraut, southern German Surfleisch, or – well – salmon. This particular side of freshly caught salmon…...
Stephen Bitterolf's new book "Vom Boden: Ten Years of Hocks & Moselles" in review.
Home is where the vines grow. We’ve all heard variations on that theme. But just how far can that idea be taken? WeinGoutte offers one answer. This portable micro-estate — whose first vintage sold out in a blink — is the brainchild of husband-and-wife team Christoph Müller and Emily Campeau. The concept goes beyond negociant but stops well short of flying winemaker. It also presents an entirely new model for a footloose generation’s interpretation of the relationship between vintner and site. Campeau, a fierce lover of food and wine (and a vivid writer on both), is originally from Québec. Her experiences in…...
With production levels dwindling, many German wine circles are asking the uncomfortable question “Is Auslese finished?” David Schildknecht answers.
Her child, she thinks, is a Riesling. Of all the varieties in the world, she inevitably returns to this one. There is something in the grape’s singular ability to convey fragility and strength, ephemera and eternity, that mirrors motherhood and frames the child in her mind’s eye. The child could have reflected a multiple of varieties, a blend perhaps, or a different hue. She remembers a strawberry-scented evening of pink Cinsault in a South African game lodge, bottomless glasses as sundowners, followed by a queasy morning-after, and a realization that the child — then little more than a flicker —…...
Picture yourself at a German holiday market (if such things were happening in 2020) — a mug of glühwein in hand and the scent of fresh pfeffernuss cookies in the air. It’s no surprise that these warm, spicy aromas are key attributes in many wines from Germany and Austria, South Tyrol, and the German-speaking parts of Switzerland. And there’s a hidden world of compounds and precursors to thank for this distinctive and alluring range. Much like a chef in the kitchen, growers can influence the aromatic and flavor complexity of their wines by playing with soil type, exposition, vine age,…...
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