Rheingau Gourmet & Wein Festival

Thursday, February 25th, 2016: It’s opening night of the 20th annual Rheingau Gourmet & Wein Festival. 10 world class chefs have been flown in from around the world to prepare dishes, and 30 Rheingau wineries are set to pour their wine and sekt.

Top Chefs from Germany and Around the World & 30 Rheingau Wineries

Held within the Lay Brothers’ Dormitory of the historic Kloster Eberbach, the guests arrived dressed to impress. However, this was not the time to wear anything too restricting around the waist line. Guests wandered amongst the many food and wine booths looking to see what tickles their fancy. By the end of the night the goal is – or should be – to try everything. You are, after all, here to experience all the great food and wine on offer.

Plating for nearly 200 people

Anthony Hammond of Garage Winery and Hammond Wines in Oestrich Winkel kindly invited me to experience this event and help pour. We served magnums of his full-bodied, rich and crisp, semi-sweet 2009 Berg Roseneck Riesling Spätlese to guests, while at the same time indulging ourselves in the interesting food and wines available. Interestingly, some Germans still have an ingrained aversion to sweet rieslings. I think this harkens back to the prominent days of Liebfraumilch and other such once-high-quality-turned-low-quality sweet German wines that ravaged the globe, and to this day still (foolishly) represent German wines in many parts of the world. But with over 10 magnums poured in under 5 hours, this wine was a welcomed alternative to dry Rieslings provided by other wineries.

Winemaker Anthony Hammond and Myself

The Food: To start, I had the foie gras with black truffle vinaigrette, red beet essence, and brioche toast. This, as well as a goose liver mousse (served in an avant garde-esque gold-coloured egg), was the perfect accompaniment to the semi-sweet spätlese I was pouring at this event. Divine! Fatty and salty paired with the deep fruity sweetness. There was veal from Wiesbaden’s Michelin star restaurant, Die Ente, salmon cakes from Chef Benny Masekwameng from South Africa, many others, including a white chocolate-mango ganache from Kronenschlösschen, Hattenheim for dessert.

Foie Gras with Hammond’s 2009 Berg Roseneck Riesling Spätlese, and White Chocolate-Mango Ganache

The Wine: Some wines of particular note from this evening’s event include a 2007 Chardonnay brut Sekt from Bardong winery, with delightful notes of brioche; a 2014 Siegelsberg dry Riesling from Schloss Reinhartshausen, with super explosive, exciting fruitiness and acidity to balance; as well as a stellar Pinot Noir from Robert König winery.

A mere 24 hours later and I feel like Cinderella. Last night, stellar food from top star chefs; today, Domino’s pizza. Though to be honest, I do love me my pizza nearly as much as fancy food. Shhhhh…