Pairing German Wine with Food



Our Changing Menu

What we eat and how our food is prepared have changed considerably in recent years. Demand for fresh, seasonal and specialty products and ingredients has never been higher. Health conscious diners are eating lighter foods and seeking out better prepared more nutritious and more flavourful dishes.

Grape types through travel, media exposure and personal experience, we have become much more aware both of other cuisines and of the wealth of ingredients and exotic preparations now available to us in the global pantry.

As our daily menu becomes more varied and eclectic, the wine selection process becomes more challenging. Which types of wines go best with specific foods and preparations? What about sauces, herbs, spices and seasonings?

This webpage provides you with answers to these questions and introduces you to some of the most accommodating mealtime wines produced anywhere, German wines.

German Wines: Versatile Wines With Today's Menus

Germany produces a wide range of white, rose and red wines. Because they are generally lighter, crisper, and more fragrant than most other wines, German wines are often perfectly suited to today's lighter, more flavourful fare.

What makes German wines so versatile?

Map of Wine Regions Germany is a northern European wine country, whose cool climate and long growing season yields wines with refreshing crispness, elegant flavours, and moderate alcohol content (averaging 8% to 11%, compared with 12% to 13% for wines from most other countries).

The moderate alcohol content of German wines means fewer total calories per glass and an appealing drinkable ness, which makes them less tiring than fuller bodied wines.

At the table, this natural lightness, combined with the wine's underlying crispness, allows German wines to pair easily with a broad range of foods. And the elegant fruitiness of German wines marries readily with robust--and refined--dishes of all types.

The only question is, which wines go with which food?
Getting Stared in Pairing Wine and Food
Pairing food with wine is a skill which can be developed very quickly by following some basic guidelines and by trusting your own taste. The guidelines below are not inflexible rules. They are suggestions to help speed you along on your taste journey.

Food and Wine Pairing Guidelines

1. Focus on the food or dish first, since most people decide what they will eat before deciding on which wine to enjoy with it.
2. Look at the complete dish, not simply its primary ingredient. In making wine selections, it is often as important to consider the method of preparation and sauces or seasonings used in a dish as it is the primary food ingredient.

Roast pork could be matched with many wines. But pork in a dried cherry and red wine sauce would require a wine that would stand up to the sweetness and fruitiness of the sauce, such as an aromatic or medium dry German wine (as a Traminer or Scheurebe Q.b.A., Kabinett or Spatlese).

3. Size up each food or dish according to its overall taste impression, focusing specifically on its texture (heavy, smooth, light) and its flavour intensity (pungent/spicy, medium, mild).

Texture
Texture is the feeling and weight of the dish in your mouth. Generally, heavier textured dishes (meat, game, oily fish, cheese) call for either full bodied wines, which complement the dishes' heavy texture, or very crisp, zesty wines, to cut through that heavy texture.

Flavour Intensity
Wine and Glasses Generally, it is best to match delicately flavoured dishes with lighter bodied and delicately flavoured wines and to match fuller flavoured dishes with fuller bodied, fuller flavoured wines.

However, dishes and foods which are particularly intense in flavour are more difficult to match with wines than dishes with less intensity. This is especially true of dishes with high levels of sweetness, saltiness, spiciness, tartness or strong fishy, oily, gamy or smoky character. (Note: this includes many ethnic foods and dishes.) Here are some recommendations for intensely flavoured dishes which are more demanding of the wines with which they are served.





FOODS/DISHES
which are extremely... RECOMMENDED GERMAN WINES
Sweet
(e.g., most desserts) white and rosé wines of at least equal sweetness

German Auslese, BA, TBA, Eiswein (white and rosé)
Salty
(e.g., bacon, ham, caviar) white and rosé wines which are aromatic or very fruity wines, off dry wines

German Q.b.A., Spatlese, lighter Auslese (including rosés); medium dry Spatlese and Auslese from Rhein regions, or Nahe, Wurttemberg and Franken
Crisp/Tart
(e.g., vinegary salads, veal piccata) very fruity or aromatic wines, usually off dry, but with moderate acidity

German Spatlese, and both medium-dry and dry Spatlese and Auslese, including rosés
Spicy/Hot
(e.g., chili pepper, pepper, curry, Tex-Mex, Thai) light bodied, aromatic, crisp, fruity wines

German Q.b.A., Spatlese (off dry and medium dry), lighter Auslese
Oily/Fatty
(e.g., pates, rich cheeses, avocado, foie gras) rosés, rich, full flavored wines, with marked acidity

German Spatlese, Auslese (sweet and medium dry), full Beerenauslese and Eiswein
Fishy
(e.g., anchovies sardines) fuller bodied, fruity or aromatic wines, usually off dry but also medium dry

German Q.b.A., Spatlese (off dry and medium dry), lighter Auslese, especially Mosel-Saar-Ruwer and rosés
Smoky
(e.g., fish, shellfish, ham, poultry, beef) rich, fruity, crisp wines

German Spatlese and Auslese (off dry and medium dry), especially Rhein and Nahe; full reds (Spatburgunder, Lemberger)
Spicy/Herbal
(e.g., pesto, salsa, herb/tomato sauces) fruity, crisp wines, usually with sweetness

German Spatlese and Auslese (off dry and medium dry), including rosés (Weissherbst), full reds (Spatburgunder, Lemberger)

German Wines and Ethnic Foods

German wines are extraordinarily, versatile with foods and dishes from around the world. Indeed, because of their lightness, crispness and fruitiness, German wines are among the best wines of all to pair with dishes which are very, spicy, and/or lightly sweet, including classics from spicy cuisines like Thai, Mexican, Chinese (Szechuan-Hunan}, Tex-Mex, Cajun and Indian.

Here are a few quick rules for matching German wines with ethnic foods.

* If a dish contains some sweetness, serve an off dr), German wine to match that sweetness.
* If a dish is spicy, serve lighter bodied (lower-alcohol) German wines, since alcohol amplifies the spiciness of a dish.
* If a dish is hot and spicy, serve a German wine with both low alcohol and slight sweetness to counterbalance the heat of the dish.

Indonesia Beef satay, with spicy peanut sauce
Mexican Chicken enchilada
Chinese Szechuan beef stew
Tex-Mex Three chili pizza
Cajun Shrimp gumbo
Indian Chicken curry

THE WINES OF GERMANY

The wines of Germany are produced in 13 regions from more than a dozen different grape varieties. Although the wines have much in common, they also exhibit regional characteristics.

For example, white wines from the Rheinhessen , Mosel-Saar-Ruwer and Ahr regions tend to be light and fairly crisp; those from Pfalz, Baden and Wudtemberg are fuller and spicier.



Grape Varieties

* Riesling

"To me, the Riesling grape makes the greatest white wines in the world." (Jancis Robinson)

Germany's greatest grape is the worlds most underrated variety of today. It has it's own typical aroma and "nerve", and yet also the ability to reflect the soil characteristics of its vineyard more than any other variety. Flowery and fruity aromas (peach, pear, apricot, apple, currants, mango ...) as well as herbal, spicy, and earthy or mineral notes (often slate) are common. Even petrol and other strange smells can develop. With its low alcohol levels and high acidity, it is difficult to make harmonious, fully dry wines from it. Still, the best dry Rieslings from Germany, Alsace, and the Wachau in Austria, are great, intense, racy wines, which can compete with the best dry whites of any other variety. Lighter Kabinett wines with a hint of residual sugar, and sweeter Spätlesen, are more widely associated with German Riesling, and they are unrivalled in their delicate balance and finesse. When attacked by botrytis, Riesling can produce the most stunning dessert wines, whose enormous sweetness is balanced by extreme acidity levels. These wines need to age, in order to develop their full complexity and harmony, and they do so for decades (and cost fortunes). Yet even humble Kabinetts can live - and improve - for many years. If Chardonnay is the white wine world's Mercedes (or its Toyota?), then Riesling is its Ferrari.

* Müller Thurgau Genetic research was believed to show this to be a cross of Riesling and Gutedel, not of Riesling and Silvaner as formerly believed. But this has been contested recently, and it was probably Riesling and Madeleine Royal instead. Whatever it origins though, it remains one of the vices of the German wine industry: early ripening, high yielding, and planted all over the place since the 60's, it produces tanker loads of rubbish, rarely rising to the dizzy heights of mediocrity. Some ambitious growers experiment with dry styles, low yields, and even new oak barrels, to squeeze something interesting out of (or rather into?) it, and call it "Rivaner" to distinguish it from ordinary MT. Given its ancestors one should probably call it "Riedel" instead ;-).

*Silvaner An old variety, loosing ground to the new crossings. Unfortunately it is used very much a workhorse grape for making bland wines. It finds its greatest expression in some of the dry wines of Franken, where it can be reminiscent of a good Chablis (when grown on limestone soils), or even be opulent with exotic fruit notes. To call it ``Sylvaner" is illegal in Germany, which is why I will not do so.

* Grauburgunder (Pinot Gris) Traditionally it is called "Ruländer", and under this name it is usually made in a rich, oily, sweetish style. The trend for modern ``Grauburgunder" has been to drier and crisper wines in recent years. New oak is increasingly applied with some success (and excess), mainly in Baden and the Pfalz.

* Weissburgunder (Pinot Blanc) Widely grown to make dry wines, which can be among Germanies best dry wines, with nice melon and pear aromas. Many producers hold it in higher regard than Grauburgunder. Among the trendy ones it is a prime candidate for oak treatment. Baden and the Pfalz are particularly successful.

* Scheurebe A successful Riesling / Silvaner cross, capable of high quality. The best Rheinpfalz producers, and some others, make gorgeous wines from this variety (but less subtle than Riesling), often with aromas of red currant and grape fruit. Good for dry and sweet wines, but only if made with care, from a good site.

* Rieslaner A relatively rare and demanding Riesling / Silvaner cross, with a lot of (dramatic rather than subtle) Riesling-character. In the Pfalz Müller Catoir is the master of this grape. It is more widely successful in Franken, hitting its heights usually as a dessert wine.

* Other whites include Kerner, Huxelrebe, Gewürztraminer, Traminer (Clevner), Chardonnay, Muskateller (Muscat), Morio-Muskat, Elbling, Ehrenfelser, Gutedel (Chasselas), Bacchus, Faberrebe, Siegerrebe, Ortega.

* Spätburgunder (Pinot Noir) German Pinot Noirs used to be (and to some extent still are) "white wines with color", sweetish and dull. They often were made into pink "Weissherbst" wines, occasionally even as pink ice wines. In recent years though, ambitious producers have joined the search for the holy grail of red wine, with low yields, higher must weight, extraction, and tannin levels, and maturation in new oak. These serious red wines are all the rage, and sell at serious prices with astonishing speed. Some truely fine pinot noirs have started to emerge, but they are vastly outnumbered by "me too" red wines of uninspiring quality.

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Other reds include Portugieser, Trollinger, Dornfelder, Schwarzriesling (Müllerrebe / Meunier), Lemberger (Blaufränkischer), Saint Laurent.