A Brief Tour
Bavaria is full of rich food and wine experiences to tour and taste. Bavarian cuisine uses fresh produce, locally sourced, complementing any meal with delicious Bavarian beer or local wine. The one suggestion I like to make is to learn words of the foods you do not like to avoid a gastronomic disaster when there are so many wonderful things to enjoy.
I share with you what we learned during our tour today:
Bavarian vineyards face challenges of cool temperatures so they require varieties that can ripen in these conditions. Varieties that grow well in this area are Silvaner, Riesling, Muller Thurgau, dornfelder and Domina. Much is being done to create varieties to improve ripening capabilities of the regional vineyards.
Domina gives high yields and is not very demanding with respect to vineyard conditions. Domina wines are full-bodied and have a deep, red color.
Dornfelder is a dark-skinned variety of grape of German origin used for red wine.
Sylvaner or Silvaner is a variety of white wine grape grown in Bavaria. In Germany it is best known as a component of Liebfraumilch.
Today we tasted Federweisser, from German Feder, “feather”, and weiß, “white”; (from the appearance of the suspended yeast). It is the product of fermented freshly pressed grape juice. It also is commonly referred to as Neu Wine.
With the Federweisser we also enjoyed a Zwiebelkuchen or onion cake. Delicious.
Other Bavarian treats we enjoyed:
Obatzda is a Bavarian cheese delicacy. It is prepared by mixing two thirds aged soft cheese, usually Camembert and one third butter. Sweet or hot paprika powder, salt, pepper are the traditional seasonings as well as a small amount of beer.
And with the Sausage, Handlmaier’s Sweet Bavarian Mustard.The flavor of this mustard reminds us of sweet applewood. Perfect for mild sausages, like the classic “weisswurst” you will find in Bavaria.
And of course, my favorite, Schnitzel.
Auf wiedersehen