If you’re planning a gastro-getaway any time soon, it’s possible that Germany hasn’t made it to your shortlist. German food? Sausages and beer hove into view, with Sauerkraut marching along behind.
Everyone knows Riesling is the aristocrat of white wines and that the finest come from Germany, but German wine has an image problem – and labels proclaiming Trockenbeerenauslese in heavy Gothic script definitely don't help.
But if you dismiss Germany as a foodie destination, you'll be missing out. Stow your prejudices, pack your bags and set off across the Rhine to the Black Forest.
People have always beaten a path to this bucolic area for relaxing holidays with a big dose of wellness thrown in. But increasingly it’s the food and wines that are calling the shots. Formerly, many chefs working here commuted across the river from Alsace. These days they’re more likely to be home-grown, while the canny alsaciens (who know a thing or two about eating and drinking and who appreciate value for money) are the customers.
Baden-Württemberg (the Land where the Black Forest lies) boasts the highest concentration of Michelin stars in Germany. As for Baden wines, better known in the past for quantity than quality, these are now winning international plaudits – and prizes - for their elegance and complexity.
The Traube-Tonbach in Baiersbronn, some 50km east of Strasbourg, is a good place to start. Owned and run by the Finkbeiner family since 1789 and listed in the recently published 1000 Places to See Before You Die, this impressive destination hotel is a monument to the joys of fine food and wine. Viewed from afar, the building even looks like a Schwarzwälderkirschtorte. The outside is slathered with a thick frosting of white stucco, like luscious swirls of whipped cream, layered with chocolate-brown timbers and cascades of cherry-red geraniums.
Inside there’s everything you need for some sustained Erholung (relaxation): rooms of generous cut, a state-of-the-art bathing Bereich, every conceivable spa treatment you could wish for - and four restaurants to choose from.
Amongst the four, the plushy, pale blue, wood-panelled Schwarzwaldstube, one of Germany’s handful of three-star Michelin restaurants with chef Harald Wolhfahrt at the helm, is the one with pulling power.
Wohlfahrt describes his inspiration as French, his hero as Robuchon. Discreet hints of Asia and Italy creep in, along with the now obligatory foams (though the Pacojet, happily, is kept on a tight leash). It’s classic, finely honed, three-star stuff.
A nice teaser at a recent meal was the ‘windowpane’ of four tuna variations: a kataifi pastry morsel, a mouthful of tartare, a spoonful of mousse and a single, succulent, seared cube. Poached crayfish with coconut milk, lemongrass, ginger and fresh almonds preceded pinkly roasted pigeon breast on an ethereal broccoli emulsion, rounded out by a dazzling chocolate ensemble.
If the Schwarzwaldstube is grand opera, the delightful wood-panelled Köhlerstube is more musical theatre – creamy mushroom soups, local freshwater fish, lamb from the valley and buxom Tortes. The tiny Bauernstube, on the other hand, is a sort of in-house gastro pub offering typical titbits like Maultasche (ravioli with different fillings), locally smoked trout and rib-sticking game stews with Spätzle.
Further north at the Restaurant Schloss Neuweier just outside Baden-Baden you’ll find biker-chef Armin Röttele and his cucina della passione. Expect deliciously pronounced southern accents (the chef spent years in Switzerland’s Tessin before returning here to his roots), intense flavours and colours, silken home-made pastas, toothsome vegetables, locally raised meat and game. For a springtime treat, try the €28 business lunch menu out on the terrace (weather permitting) at the foot of the Neuweier vineyards.
To the south is the Kaiserstuhl, a small enclave of volcanic outcrops sandwiched between the Basel-Freiburg Autobahn and the Rhine, where some of Baden’s finest wines are grown in terraced vineyards. It’s worth setting up a few tastings here to get a feel for how far the wines have come.
Reinhold and Cornelia Schneider’s winery in Endingen, founded only in 1981, was flagged in 2007 by the annually published Wine Report as the fastest-improving producer in Germany. Their reputation for whites (Weissburgunder/Pinot Blanc, Grauburgunder/Pinot Gris) is firmly established but the Schneiders are no slouches where red is concerned (principally Spätburgunder, a.k.a. Pinot Noir).
Karl-Heinz Johner, whose wine career started at Lamberhurst Vineyard in Kent (southeast England), works 17 hectares in Bischoffingen (and a further 12 in Masterton, New Zealand) with his son Patrick. Their benchmark is Burgundy, their aim to make the wines that best express the unique terroir of the Kaiserstuhl. Their range of racy Spätburgunders is a lesson in what Pinot Noir can do outside its homeland in skilled hands with the right clones and good terroirs; their mouthfilling Weissburgunder knocks spots off its Pinot Blanc cousins across the Rhine in Alsace.
Close by in Oberrotweil is Weingut Salwey, another family-owned and -run estate. Since 2002, son Konrad has shared wine-growing and winemaking responsibilities with his father and takes care of the whites (floral and fruity Weissburgunders and fine Grauburgunders), while Herr Salwey Senior is responsible for some finely aromatic Spätburgunders.
For eating out, the Kaiserstuhl has plenty of options from honest country inns to elegant, Michelin-starred tables. The appealing Gasthaus Kaiserstuhl in Niederrotweil with its flowery-curtains-and-formica décor is run by a two-man father-and-son team.
The Kaiserstuhl's wrought-iron inn sign
The chef, Herr Koch Junior, cooks locally sourced ingredients (kid, rabbit, pike-perch) enlivened with armfuls of fresh herbs and edible flowers from the chef’s garden and the surrounding fields and vineyards (wild garlic and dandelions take starring roles right now), while Herr Koch Senior attends single-handed to the small dining room.
In nearby Vogtsburg-Oberbergen is the firmly established Schwarzer Adler, a cosy-elegant, wood-panelled Gasthof whose classic French cuisine with local accents served by fulsome, smiling women in Tracht (traditional Black Forest costume) has merited a Michelin star since 1969. Owner Franz Keller was a pioneering wine grower in his day, making distinctive and idiosyncratic wines which fell foul of the (arcane) rules of German wine labelling, a tradition proudly carried on by his son Fritz. The wine list is spectacular - 1800 references, including top Bordeaux and Burgundies, as well as the cream of Baden.
If roast chicken speaks to you more than poached poularde with truffles, a final option could be the Keller-owned Rebstock just across the road. Here you can feast on classics like Mistkratzerle (a proper farmyard bird that’s been scratching around in the Mist or manure heap), Wienerschnitzel or calf’s kidneys, with voluptuous apple tarts and cream cakes to finish.
A TASTE OF THE BLACK FOREST
· Hotel-Restaurant Traube Tonbach, 72270 Baiersbronn (+49 7442 4920)
· Restaurant im Schloss Neuweier, Mauerbergstrasse 21, Baden-Baden-Neuweier (+49 7223 957 0555)
· Weingut Reinhold and Cornelia Schneider, Königschaffhauserstr. 2, 74396 Endingen am Kaiserstuhl, (+49 7642 5278)
· Weingut Karl-Heinz Johner, Gartenstrasse 20, 79235 Vogstburg-Bischoffingen (+49 7662 6041)
· Weingut Salwey, Hauptstrasse 2, 79235 Oberrotweil am Kaiserstuhl (+49 7662 384)
· Gasthaus Zum Kaiserstuhl, 79325 Niederrotweil (+49 7662 237)
· Franz Keller Schwarzer Adler, Badbergstrasse 23, 79235 Vogtsburg-Oberbergen, (+49 7662 93 30 10)
· Winzerhaus Rebstock, Badbergstrasse 22, 79235 Vogtsburg-Oberbergen (+49 7662 93 30 11)
