For almost ten years now, I have had a small privilege that some colleagues probably envy. Every week, in WELT am SONNTAG, I recommend a wine to accompany a recipe by the fantastic chef Volker Hobl. Not once a month, not as an occasional wine special, and not only when Bordeaux, Burgundy or some other wine region demands attention. Every week! 52 weeks a year! 52 dishes! 52 wines!
That probably makes me the only wine writer in the German-speaking world who is allowed to publish 52 individual wine recommendations year after year in a high-circulation general-interest publication. And this gives rise to a second distinctive feature: these short reviews are among Germany's most-read regular wine tips. Here, wine does not appear in a specialist magazine whose readers already know what Timorasso, Assyrtiko or Listán Blanco are. It encounters a large audience on Sunday while they are reading.
This changes the work considerably. Because every week, the search starts all over again. The wine has to go with the dish, be available and, if possible, not cost what other people spend on a short holiday. Naturally, a more expensive bottle can make an appearance once in a while. But the constant search for wines between ten and thirty euros that genuinely have something to say is much more interesting. For grape varieties that no one currently has on their radar. For winemakers whom not everyone knows yet. And sometimes for the rather enjoyable realisation that, of all things, the wine that goes with a dish is the one that the classic pairing textbook probably would not have prescribed.
After almost ten years, around 500 individual reviews have emerged. A fairly large, somewhat anarchic wine archive: Champagne with desserts, Welschriesling from Styria, Syrah from the Moselle, Timorasso from Piedmont, Assyrtiko from Greece, Listán Blanco from Tenerife. In between, Bordeaux, Burgundy, Riesling, Sauvignon and all the usual suspects. It was never decisive whether a wine was currently fashionable. It has to go with the food. And it has to taste good.
Here are ten of these little Sunday wine journeys:
Perfect match: Until just a few years ago, sommeliers served almost exclusively sweet wines with desserts. But those belong with cheese – instead of the nonsensical red wine traditionally served with cheese. Desserts must (!) be accompanied by Champagne. And one of these Champagnes is the one that I always keep in my fridge as an emergency wine supply: the small bottle (0.375 l) Cuis 1er Cru from Pierre Gimonnet & Fils – a cuvée from individual vineyard parcels and a Blanc de Blancs, meaning made only from Chardonnay. On the nose, white grapefruit, lime, initially enormous brioche, followed by a little pear and only the slightest gooseberry. Mega elegant and luxurious on the palate. A fine pleasure.
For € 21.90 at www.bremer-weinkolleg.de
Perfect match: Summer: for me, this always also brings to mind seafood salads such as this one – and how they are traditionally eaten in France, especially at lunchtime. To go with it, I take a French Viognier from the fridge, a variety we should drink more often again: the Viognier Réserve from Les Bertholets in the Languedoc. On the nose, masses of stone fruit, tropical fruit, grapefruit, little citrus, then also a touch of summer meadow and a hint of leek. On the palate, given a little extra power through brief oak ageing – but ultimately an easy summer wine.
For € 7.49 at www.conderwines.de
Perfect match: A brilliant idea, dressing a salsiccia in the guise of a meatball. I accompany the coarsely textured Italian sausage, subtly spicy, with an extraordinary wine: the Syrah Limited Edition 2023 from Günther Steinmetz in Brauneberg on the Moselle (winemaker: Stefan Steinmetz). This wine demonstrates particularly well that this grape variety, whose roots lie above all in the Rhône, can also develop a distinctive flavour profile on the Moselle. On the nose, an unassuming cassis aroma, plenty of graphite, blueberry, a little meadow herb, a touch of smoked meat and also pepper. On the palate, the excellent use of oak comes into its own: power and elegance in perfection.
For € 49.95 at www.bottle-hero.de
Perfect match: The defining feature is spiciness. Does a measured, not overly spicy wine also work with that? Instead of one that accompanies it rather neutrally? I think so, and go down to the cellar to bring up one of the rather rare bottles: the organic Sylvaner Reserve AOC 2023 from Jean Sipp (which should really spend a few more years ageing in the cellar) from Alsace, where I have just been. On the nose, first a herbal character reminiscent of Sauvignon, then a little apricot, also unripe quince, a little pear, lime and a slight hint of chalk. Surprisingly elegant power on the palate, even though this wine has never seen the inside of an oak barrel.
For € 28.00 at www.vino45.it
Perfect match: Panzanella, then, a much- and variously interpreted Tuscan-Umbrian poor people's bread salad, which became hugely fashionable in the mid-1980s among the classes “clinking with jewels” (John Lennon in 1964 at the Royal Albert Hall). The wine pairing would be easy here, were it not for the sweet honeydew melon, against which I have to set a white wine with plenty of character: the Timorasso Derthona Colli Tortonesi DOC 2024 from Vietti, the “white Barolo”. On the nose, white flowers, also a brief hint of camomile, quince, then more vegetal than floral, blood-orange peel and the slightest bay leaf. On the palate, herbs predominate, along with that hint of orange again. An unknown rarity from Piedmont.
For € 29.00 at www.superiore.de
Perfect match: My appetite while reading this builds into pure, indeed enormous hunger. The delicious chicken today, capers and lemon, is accompanied by a Styrian Welschriesling, but one that almost completely escapes the role of simple table wine, a role that around 99% of all Welschrieslings produced have to endure: the Welschriesling Ried Ottenberg Veithhansl 2021 from Weingut Tement. Why does it work so well here? Because it was allowed to mature in oak (bringing Burgundian muscle) and brings wonderful, elegant, mineral salinity, as if the vineyard were very close to the sea. On the nose, a brief hint of violet, then cold carrots, the greenery beside a stream bed, pear and a touch of greengage. On the palate, a mouthful of wine without the ordeal of excessive power.
For € 26.50 at www.weinfurore.de
Perfect match: The pepper sausage decided it. Only a Sauvignon Blanc can stand up to it here, one from New Zealand, where they make the Sauvignons particularly fruity in Marlborough. But I chose a somewhat more understated wine, the Rimapere Sauvignon Blanc 2024, commissioned by the late French owner of a prestigious wine estate Benjamin de Rothschild, who had more of a Loire Sauvignon vision for his overseas project. On the nose, first a powerful aroma of passion fruit, a little mango, followed by masses of citrus fruit and a little fresh linen. On the palate, not the expected tropical-fruit attack, but refined elegance with enough power to defy the pepper sausage.
For € 15.95 at www.weinfreunde.de
Perfect match: Caviar: this is the roe of the sturgeon. Bottarga di Muggine is Italy's simple, orange-coloured substitute for caviar – the caviar of ordinary people. But what makes the grey mullet roe so different and special in Italy is its seasoning through air-drying. And it is precisely this salty seasoning that the salty Trenzado Listán Blanco 2025 (white wine) from Suertes del Marqués (Tenerife) matches perfectly. On the nose, first a little firework smell from New Year's Eve, followed by cold pear, also lime, a little gooseberry and damp pumice stone. Perfect on the palate and making a powerful impression. And with comparatively low alcohol.
For € 26.50 at www.gute-weine.de
Perfect match: A Greek. And not comparable with that Greek wine Udo Jürgens sang about in the 1970s – while meaning the people. A Greek, then, a white wine: the Assyrtiko Monograph 2025 from the Gaia Wines winery. I admit it: Greek wine is not often on my list. A mistake, as this Assyrtiko proves. On the nose, a little camomile, violet, summer meadow, a little gooseberry, quince and a touch of pineapple. Medium fruit on the palate and the chalkiness of the salts from the limestone soils. Goes brilliantly with vegetables. And with summer.
For € 15.85 at www.weinco.de
Perfect match: Japanese knotweed, which looks confusingly similar to green asparagus, is considered an invasive plant in Germany – in other words, bad. Yet in my view, anything that tastes good is welcome to invade. The Chasselas (Gutedel) grape variety is somehow invasive too, recognised by the winegrowers on Lake Geneva only as being indigenous there. Be that as it may, I chose the magnificent Gutedel Ortswein 2024 from the architecturally attractive Blankenhorn winery in the Markgräflerland. On the nose, gentle mandarin, a little yellow pear, a little quince and then also a prominent lime note. On the palate, wonderfully agreeable acidity that carries the wine down the throat without ever burning.
For € 13.50 at www.wirwinzer.de