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White cheese and wine

See under wine with food.

There is extensive literature on the subject of "the right wine for a meal", with sometimes diametrically opposed recommendations. Even professionals such as sommeliers in award-winning restaurants often give very different recommendations. Does this mean that it doesn't matter which wine is drunk with which dish? In principle, the very simple rule can apply: "Whatever tastes good goes". But there are actually a number of dishes that virtually demand a certain type of wine. There are some basic rules for enjoying several wines. However, the following explanations should at best only be understood as a suggestion, because drinking wine and eating is first and foremost a pleasure through the senses and not a purely "objective" and measurable scientific matter.

Wedin zu Speisen - Rotweinglas und Rehbraten

Order of the wines

Basically, the order of the wines is based on their quality level, i.e. you start with simple, light (usually white) wines and work your way up to the "strongest wine". Long-lived wines should ideally have reached the necessary drinking maturity or at best their peak, but this applies in principle to every occasion and not just when choosing the right wine for a meal. It can be assumed that this is the case in a good restaurant, but at home you must of course make the right choice yourself. A noble sweet wine - for example a Trockenbeerenauslese - can then be suitable as the final wine. The four basic rules that almost always apply are

Wine list

When dining in a restaurant, you can get expert advice and be suggested the "right wine". An important criterion for deciding whether a restaurant has the necessary qualifications is the wine list. Because only if there is a large selection available, and not just four or five wines, or perhaps in the worst case only "red wine or white wine", can you assume that a drinking culture is being cultivated here. The following essay on the subject of "the right wine" comes from Frank Bläuel, former president of the "Club der Sommellerie Österreich" for many years and owner of the "Berghotel Tulbingerkogel" in Mauerbach near Vienna (Austria), who possesses this qualification to the highest degree. The hotel's wine list is one of the richest in the country and has already been honoured 22 times with the "Best of Award of Excellence" from Wine Spectator magazine and comprises 1,450 items.

The estate also cultivates its own vineyard. The vines were brought here by sommeliers from 30 nations (each from a different grape variety) on the occasion of the 1998 World Sommelier Championships and planted next to the restaurant terrace on the Tulbingerkogel. A cuvée is made from them every year. Now let Frank Bläuel have his say:

Wein zu Speisen - Tulbingerkogel - Vinothek und Haupteingang

Season, occasion and mood

It is not only the selected dishes that influence the harmonising drinks, but also the time of year, the time of day, the occasion of the meal, the number of people and, of course, the willingness to spend money. Last but not least, the mood or state of mind should not be underestimated. Everyone has experienced the phenomenon of holiday wine. What was an extraordinary drinking pleasure with your beloved partner in a romantic restaurant on the beach with soft music, palm trees and sunset, and tempted you to take a box of the fine wine with you, now tastes horrible, dull and empty at home.

Imagine a sunny August day, a terrace or a picnic in the countryside; a white wine that is as light as possible, with a delicate acidity and elegant fruitiness, would be perfect. The opposite scenario is an evening in Advent, where a rather full-bodied red wine with flavours such as dried berries, eucalyptus and a slight sweetness will suit. At daytime, it is almost an automatic rule that lighter wines are preferable at lunchtime than in the evening. The term "breakfast wine" is used for particularly light, low-alcohol wines, although you don't necessarily enjoy a wine with breakfast. In the past, however, wine soups were also popular for breakfast in better circles.

The occasion is an important selection criterion. If Champagne Cuvée de Prestige is seen as an everyday drink, what do you celebrate a birthday with? If wine is not available by the glass, the number of dishes on the menu and the number of people at the table result in reasonable economic quantities of different wines. For two people, you may want to cover the entire menu with...

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Thomas Götz

Serious sources on the internet are rare - and Wine lexicon from wein.plus is one such source. When researching for my articles, I regularly consult the wein.plus encyclopaedia. There I get reliable and detailed information.

Thomas Götz
Weinberater, Weinblogger und Journalist; Schwendi

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