My Wine Food Pairing adventures have taken me to Austria on occasion, and is there anything more romantic than sitting in an Austrian wine house, known as a heurigen?
A typical heurigen is marked by pine boughs over the door and has large wooden picnic tables and benches. Many of them have seating outside in courtyard gardens….usually, they have a wonderful view. Visitors seat themselves and order their wine at the table from a passing server. After a few glasses of wine, visitors then head up to buffet counter to get their food and bring it back to the table. Potato salads, pickled vegetables and smoked meats account for most of the tasty offerings at the counter, but they will make you a fresh schnitzel or fried chicken.
One of my favorite wines to order is Zweigelt. It comes from the red wine territory of Burgenland in eastern Austria, south of Vienna and along the border with Hungary. Zweigelt is a new grape on the wine scene, developed in 1922 by Fritz Zweigelt, an Austrian scientist. Originally called rotburger, the name was changed to honor its creator.
Zweigelt reminds me a of a spicy Beaujolais and has a freshness that goes great with a wide range of foods including a traditional schnitzel, which is a meat cutlet, pounded thin, usually breaded and sautéed. It can be made with veal, pork or turkey and you can have it plain or with a variety of sauces….YUM!
Wine Food Pairing takes a lot of practice....so go out there, experiment and enjoy. There are no wrong pairings! CHEERS!For a lot more information on domestic and international wines check out Cellars Wine Club
1 comment:
I live in Schnitzel land. Have you ever tried "Sturm" which is wine at its second fermentation stage?
Its available at the heurigen this time of year.
I'm a vegetarian so for an excellent wine food pairing experience try black bread with a cheese platter and a glass of sturm.
Delicious.
the danger though is that Sturm goes down like cool drink and you can easily drink too much....
Post a Comment