(Manfred Klimek)
Week after week, a wine recommendation from me appears in *WELT AM SONNTAG* beneath the ‘Recipe of the Week’. It’s carefully crafted, often the result of very deliberate tasting – and yet, unfortunately, it remains little more than a footnote. In contrast to the column, which is probably read by far more people. So it’s time to publish these tips individually. In a world where perhaps only wine offers any solace – for a few glasses’ worth.
The recipes themselves remain hidden here, in this text, for copyright reasons. What remains is the wine – and the freedom to constantly rethink it. Without guidelines, without compulsion, without the usual pairing dogma that otherwise dictates the tips here
So, five wines that need no explanation. Instead, they’re just waiting to be put to use. By readers who know that good pairing has less to do with rules than with curiosity.
Pairs perfectly with: a hearty dish. This brings to mind an experiment I’ve been wanting to try for a long time. I fetch a bottle of dry white port from the cellar, Dirk Niepoort’s Dry White (no vintage) – a classic among those wines that have been around for centuries. It’s not quite as dry on the palate as I’d expected – which is an advantage when it comes to pairing with food. On the nose: nuts, brown toast, and hints of pineapple and hay. And then the slightly sharper scent of brandy, which is traditionally added to port wines – the British love that. On the palate, it’s surprisingly fresh, full-bodied, not overly fruity and quite satisfying. I drink it – sacrilegiously – diluted with a splash of soda water to accompany cod – perfect!
For €11.49 at www.silkes-weinkeller.de
A perfect match: a hearty dish. Artichokes, Serrano ham, plenty of olive oil, and a fried egg that’s almost neutral in flavour. This challenges two sides of my palate. Firstly, the one that’s championing an equally robust, salty and mineral-rich wine here. And secondly, the one I prefer today: the one crying out for a rather neutral, easy-drinking wine. So I fetch the ‘gem’ from the Metzger Winery 2024 from my fridge and pour this cuvée of Pinot Blanc and Chardonnay into my rarely used glasses for young white wines. On the nose, a hint of stone fruit, a touch of gooseberry, a touch of freshly rinsed Tupperware and then, on the finish, a surprising amount of peach. On the palate, pure drinking pleasure – perfectly suited to the temperatures outside.
For €7.50 at www.ludwig-von-kapff.de
A perfect match: a Welschriesling would go down very well here – and I’ve recently drunk a great many good ones, which I intend to describe in more detail in a later column here in the paper. When spring is really in the air. That’s why today, to accompany this spring dish, I’m taking another wine out of the fridge – an Alvarinho, which, in my view, deserves more recognition than many other Vinho Verdes from Portugal: the Alvarinho Deu-la-Deu 2024 from the Adega de Monaco cooperative. On the nose, initially a burst of tropical fruit, with plenty of chilled, subtle pineapple. This is very quickly followed by green tea (the leaves), a hint of pomegranate and a touch of Campari. On the palate, it’s incredibly smooth, with the region’s characteristic hint of salt and a slight touch of Negroni bitters, which quickly has me pouring myself another glass.
Available for €11.50 at www.koelner-weinkeller.de
A perfect match: chilli and chives: here I’d pair it with a natural wine made from a different grape variety, which pairs brilliantly with these two flavour bombs and also goes well with prawns: the Naturweiss Gutswein 2023 (Müller-Thurgau, Riesling, Silvaner, Pinot Blanc) by Jule Eichblatt and Kai Schätzel (Weingut Schätzel, Rheinhessen), one of Germany’s finest and most affordable natural wines – and, at 11.5% alcohol, delightfully light. Not an orange wine, as the colour might suggest: the musts in the cuvée were simply left on the skins for varying lengths of time. On the nose, green and white tea, with a hint of oolong, followed by dry meadow herbs, a touch of stone fruit, a touch of thyme and a touch of sea foam. On the palate, it is juicy, crisp and inviting, with a creamy texture from the partial use of flor yeast (the Sherry method). A successful experiment in creating a new and completely different German wine.
Available for €14.00 at www.gute-weine.de
It’s a perfect match: the world is dancing on volcanoes! So it’s only logical to pull a wine from a volcanic region out of the cellar: the I Vigneri Salvo Foti Rossi 2023 from Sicily. The volcano, which we all know for its regular eruptions, is called Etna and provides the perfect soil for very salty, aromatic and delicate grapes. The cuvée, made from Nerello Mascarese and Capuccio, is pressed using brutally traditional methods without any modern frills and is therefore refreshingly rustic. On the nose, there’s initially a dramatic hint of juniper (as in gin), followed by eucalyptus, rosehip, sunflowers, plum, blueberry and Mediterranean meadow herbs. On the palate (best served chilled at around 12 degrees), it is easy-drinking and unpretentious. The finest interpretation of a ‘Landwein’.
Available for €29.75 at www.weinkombinat.com
A perfect match: I’m Viennese. There’s no such thing as Viennese cuisine – this was, and remains, the cuisine of the entire Danube Monarchy. And then there’s Salzburg. It isn’t on the Danube. And to every Viennese, it’s a foreign entity that belongs to Bavaria. But: we owe the Salzkammergut cuisine the Tafelspitz consommé (nobody at the Habsburg court ever called it ‘broth’). And the semolina dumplings too. To finally get round to the wine, a simple Veltliner is more than just a perfect match: I’ll fetch the 2023 Grüner Veltliner Federspiel ‘Treu’ from Mathias Hirtzberger’s Weinhofmeisterei out of the fridge. On the nose, a hint of grapefruit at first, followed briefly by mandarin, then quickly apricot, a touch of peach and a generous amount of tropical fruit. On the palate, it’s like a warm embrace of spring to come. Absolutely brilliant!
Available for €26.80 at www.moevenpick-wein.de