German Food - German Wine

     One of my favorite things to do when I visit my grandmother is to go to one of the two German restaurants near her.  I have not been able to find any good sit down
German restaurant, so if you know of any let me know.  My grandmother always orders the wiener schnitzel, with red cabbage, and spaetzle.  This is delicious.  I always felt like I should order something different.  For a while I was trying to find something different that I liked.  I never found it.  So this past week when we went out I had Wiener Schnitzel, red cabbage, and this time a potato dumpling.
      Now onto wine.  The last few years I have been drawn to Riesling, dry Riesling to be specific.  Dry means there is no residual (left over) sugar.  Sugar is converted to alcohol in the fermentation.  Residual sugar is sugar that has not been converted into alcohol.  The reason most Rieslings are sweet (some are very sweet) is because of the residual sugar.  A dry Riesling is fruity, and some are sweet like a sweet peach, but not like candy.  There are a few other things that can make wine feel and taste sweeter, but that is for another day.
     On to the wine.  I heard once that an easy way to pair foods is to match region of food with region of wine.  This is what we did, a German wine with German food.  The wine we had was Kabinett (dry) Riesling.  The winery is in Rheinhessen, Germany on the Gunderloch Estate.  The wine is their Gunderloch Jean- Baptiste Riesling Kabinett, 2006.  The wine had a nice citrus smell, however the aroma was not amazing. The taste though was great.  It had an apricot taste, with a light orange marmalade flavor.  The finish was a nice with a lingering peach flavor it it.  I am undecided about whether or not I tasted cider.  It might not have been cider but I don't know what else it would be.  If you figure it out let me know.
      The fun and complication about pairing.  The German food had a good amount of vinegar, and I loved it.  I was amazed at how the food changed the wine.  With the food the wine had less fruit.  It became more crisp, a bit grassy (which is a good term).  It started tasting more like a Pinto Grigio.  I am sure my grandmother loved that.  She is a big Pinto Grigio fan.  She had a beer that night though, but I am sure she enjoyed wine too.
    This was a reminder for me, if not a lesson, on what effect food and wine have on each other.  I hope you enjoyed the information about dry and sweet wine or about the pairing, or both.

Enjoy your wine!


photo and information about wine: http://www.rudiwiest.com/estates/estates_601.htm 


photo of food (there are also some recipes): http://foodiewife-kitchen.blogspot.com/2009/03/happy-birthday-mutti-blaukraut-red.html