I Love German Wine and Food - A Rheinhessen Dornfelder

If you are in the mood for fine German wine and food, why not consider the Rheinhessen region of southwestern Germany. You may even find a bargain, and I do believe that you'll have fun on this fact-filled wine education tour in which we review a local red Dornfelder.

Rheinhessen is a relatively small area, sometimes called the land of the thousand hills, nestled between the Rhine and the Nahe Rivers. It already was known for its wines in the days of Charlemagne. To some extent it is famous or infamous for Liebfraumilch, to be reviewed in another article in this series. Of all the German regions Rheinhessen is the one with the largest area planted in wine grapes and also has the highest wine production. Rheinhessen is responsible for more than one quarter of the German wine acreage and wine production. It is also produces the highest percentage of generally low quality table wine, coming in at almost 12%. More than 60% of Rheinhessen wine is middle quality QbA wine, and a bit more than 25% is higher quality QmP wine. About seven of eight bottles contain white wine, but the percentage of red wine is increasing. The most widely grown varieties are the German hybrid Mueller-Thurgau and Silvaner. The usually higher quality Riesling represents about 10% of the total production. Dornfelder is the most widely planted red grape variety. The marketing materials, quoted below, present one viewpoint of this German-bred grape.

Mainz has a population of about eighty thousand. It is one of the centers of the German wine trade. It is the capital of Rheinland-Pfalz, the only German state government that has a wine minister. The city is built on the site of a two thousand year-old Roman citadel. Here two thousand years is nothing; a local museum contains three hundred thousand year-old artifacts. In season the Marktplatz (Market) and Höfchen (Little Courtyard) buzz with farmers selling their wares on Tuesday, Friday, and Saturday. Check the exact dates for the annual Sektfest (Sparkling Wine Festival) held in late May or early June and then Johannisnacht, another wine festival several weeks later.

Other sites to see include the Dom (Cathedral of St. Martin and St. Stephan) which broke ground shortly prior to the turn of the first millennium. Because of seven fires most of the Cathedral is newer, dating from the Eleventh to the Thirteenth Centuries. The cloisters contain a museum of religious artifacts. Right near by is the Gutenberg Museum. Other local museums are devoted to the Middle Ages, Roman warships, art, plants, animals, and fossils. If all this touring makes you thirsty for more than knowledge visit the Kupferberg Sektkellerei (sparkling wine cellars), the deepest on earth. There are several concert halls, theaters, night clubs, and wine bars. Not far from the city are the Mainz Sand Dunes, a tiny area home to plants and animals rarely seen in Western Europe.

Before reviewing the Rheinhessen wine and imported cheeses that we were lucky enough to purchase at a local wine store and a local Italian food store, here are a few suggestions of what to eat with indigenous wines when touring this beautiful region. Start with Zweibelkuchen (Onion Pie). For your second course enjoy Haxen und Bratkartoffeln (Pork Hocks and Home Fries). As a dessert indulge yourself with Frankfurter Kranz (Buttercream Cake).

OUR WINE REVIEW POLICY All wines that we taste and review are purchased at the full retail price.

Wine Reviewed Rappenhof Dornfelder Trocken 2004 13.0% alcohol about $15.50

Let's start by quoting the marketing materials. Dornfelder is a cross, bred in 1956 by August Herold. In its genealogy, the grape claims every important red vine grown in Germany. Fortunately, it has inherited most of the positive attributes and very few of the negative. The wines are deeply coloured, velvety in texture with hints of floral. Slightly off-dry, this example gives good aroma replays on the palate. Serve with Wiener schnitzel. Now for the review. (By the way, I found its color more of a dark rose.)

My first pairing was with a barbecued, marinated rib steak with potato patties, potato wedges, and a commercially prepared eggplant and tomato side dish. When I ate the meat and potatoes the wine came out very short with moderate fruit. It almost seemed to disappear in the presence of the fairly powerful eggplant dish.

The next tasting involved a cheeseless broccoli, mushroom, and zucchini quiche with mashed potatoes. This Dornfelder was sour with some sort of strange fruit in the background. I finished the glass with beer nuts. The wine was fairly flat but the sourness did disappear.

The final meal consisted of meatballs in a tomato sauce with rice and green beans. The wine was somewhat rounder than before but was still ever so short. I thought I was drinking an alcoholic fruit juice.

The initial cheese pairing was with a French goat cheese that really resembled a Camembert. The wine was a bit flat but had some taste of black cherries. Then I went to a Swiss Gruyere. The Dornfelder did become a bit more robust but lost some of its fruit on the way. I terminated this disappointing bottle with a locally produced, fairly sharp Asiago cheese that I prefer to its presumably more authentic Italian cousin. Finally a decent pairing; the wine was pleasant.

Final verdict. I didn't plan to be reviewing two Dornfelders in such short order. But we don't get many of them in our neck of the woods so I figured why not give it a try. I am definitely not planning on a third round before the cows come home. I fail to see why such a grape should cost more than many better grapes from German and other countries. Needless to say, if this wine were better...

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Levi Reiss has authored or co-authored ten books on computers and the Internet, but to be honest, he would rather just drink fine German, Italian or other wine, accompanied by the right foods. He teaches classes in computers at an Ontario French-language community college. His global wine website is www.theworldwidewine.com and his Italian wine website is www.theitalianwineconnection.com .

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