Andrea Farinetti, the winemaker at Giacomo Borgogno e Figli  is only 22 years old. The estate however, which his family bought in 2008, was founded back in 1761. What a contrast! And somehow all is said: at Borgogno both tradition and modernity are very important. Tradition translates through the use of big Slavonian oak casks as opposed to new, smaller Barriques and also through a very late release of the wines, as to prevent disappointment with wines that might be opened too early. On the other hand there’s modernity which probably shows in the pragmatism that each vintage demands from the winemakers and the implementation of modern findings into the vineyard work.

At the Rheingau Gourmet festival we were lucky to attend  a tasting of 8 Borgogno wines with the comments of Andrea Farinetti and his colleague from the marketing side of the estate. The tasting was held at Weingut Georg Müller Stiftung, a Riesling and Pinot estate in Hattenheim within the Rheingau region. Here are my tasting notes: Read the rest of this entry »

Finally I got to visit one of Frankfurt’s most acclaimed fine dining locations, Restaurant Villa Merton*, where Chef Matthias Schmidt is applying a cuisine which could be qualified as regional, experimental and natural. Without doubt, there are some striking similarities to restaurant Noma chef René Redzepi’s philosophy, as Schmitt as well has a focus on regional specialties, gathering herbs and fruit and sourcing meat and fish in the very region of Frankfurt.

After I had a provisional introduction to Matthias Schmidt’s cuisine at a pop-up restaurant last year, a friend’s visit was the right occasion to discover his philosphy “full throttle”. We opted for the seven course menu named “Stoff”, here’s the story of our dinner. Read the rest of this entry »

…these charming little aluminium-wine-dispensing cubes! OK, I don’t want to make advertising for a brand that seems to be outrageously successful anyway these days, but I just have to say that it puts a smile on my face every time I see one of these guys. But of course, you also have to make good use of em, so maybe I should rather praise Gregorelli’s restaurant in Frankfurt for the good filling: a couple of blockbuster Italian wines, including Sassicaia and Tignanello. Read the rest of this entry »

Endlich habe ich dem Weinsinn einen längst hinfälligen Besuch abstatten können. Nachdem vor ein paar Monaten André Rickert als neuer Küchenchef anfing, gab es so einige Lobeshymnen auf das gute Essen. High End Food zum Beispiel freute sich, dass die Bistronomie Welle, die zur Zeit in Paris Ihre Hochzeit erlebt, nun endlich auch in Deutschland angekommen ist und mit dem Weinsinn einen erstklassigen Vertreter gefunden hat.
Dem kann ich nur beipflichten! Leider war ich nur mit meiner Handykamera unterwegs und die Bilder sind dadurch von sehr schlechter Qualität. Aber für ein kleines Restaurant-Telegram reicht das allemal. In Zukunft werde ich bestimmt auch detailreicher berichten. Read the rest of this entry »

As many wines, this one also has its story. Aldo Conterno‘s Il Favot usually contains Nebbiolo stemming from younger vines (less than 20 years old) and is meant to be a deeply coloured but smooth and thus easy to drink Piemont-wine. But with the 2003 vintage, it actually is a downgraded Barolo. The whole story which created a certain hype around this wine is Read the rest of this entry »

Most of the times I had Barolo, they were older bottles of average origin, thus dispersing all the generic perfume of leaves on a forest floor with mushrooms and some rather absent fruit. I would lie if I wouldn’t say that, even though those wines were perfectly ok to drink and had beautiful labels, I was slightly disappointed or somewhat bored. Read the rest of this entry »