The cheeses made in and around Rheingau: the protected names first, then the local cheeses people actually eat, with their milk, rind, ageing and taste.

The cheeses of Rheingau

Hessischer Handkäse

PGI, first protected 2010Cow milkOtherWashed rindAlso Hessischer Handkäs

A small sour-milk cheese made from cow's-milk quark and shaped into palm-sized rounds of 20 to 125 g; the name comes from once shaping them by hand. The quark is ground, mixed with ripening salts, salt and sometimes caraway, ripened for a few days in a warm sweating room and sold as a red-smear yellow cheese, in one style also with a white milk mould. Hessischer Handkäse is the protected form of Handkäse: a PGI since 2010 for cheese made and packed in Hesse, which takes in the Rheingau. Its best-known serving is Handkäs mit Musik, in an onion, vinegar and oil marinade. Weingut Koegler's Gutsausschank in Eltville names Handkäs among the Rheingau specialities of its kitchen.

Taste: The EU single document describes the smeared cheese as pure, spicy to piquant, with a smooth golden-yellow to reddish-brown smear and a whitish to slightly yellow paste, supple to firm. The style with white milk mould is pure, mild to slightly aromatic.

Ageing: 2 to 3 days in a sweating room warming from about 18 to 30 °C, then further ripening until packing

Made in: The federal state of Hesse, which includes the Rheingau

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Spundekäs

Fresh

A seasoned fresh-cheese spread, not a ripened cheese: quark and fresh cheese, often with butter or cream, beaten smooth and seasoned with pepper and other spices, with onion on the side. German Wikipedia places its origin in northern Rheinhessen, across the Rhine, but the Rheingau tourism site calls it the culinary classic of the Rheingau and says the traditional Straußwirtschaften and Gutsschänken are unthinkable without it. It is served on a wooden board and spooned up with salted pretzels. The contest Rheingau sucht den SuperSpundekäs held its tenth and last edition in April 2024. Recipes vary from house to house.

Taste: Rheingau.de describes a creamy base of quark, fresh cheese, butter and cream with a strong seasoning of pepper, garlic and other spices, meant for wine. German Wikipedia adds sweet paprika for colour and chopped or ringed onions over or beside it.

Ageing: None, it is mixed and eaten fresh

Made in: Northern Rheinhessen by origin; made in wine estates and home kitchens across the Rheingau and Rheinhessen

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Cheeses in Rheingau, FAQ

Is Hessischer Handkäse the same as Handkäse?

Handkäse is the type: a small sour-milk cheese eaten across the Rhine-Main area, Rheinhessen and the Palatinate, and the type itself is not protected. Hessischer Handkäse is the protected name, a PGI under Regulation (EU) 784/2010 since September 2010: only Handkäse made and packed in Hesse may carry it, though the quark need not come from Hesse.

What is Handkäs mit Musik?

Handkäse marinated in onions, vinegar and oil. The EU single document calls it one of the best-known ways of eating the cheese.

What do people drink with Handkäse?

German Wikipedia says apple wine is the usual drink, and that a dry white wine is also drunk with it in some areas such as Rheinhessen and the Palatinate. The EU single document says no inn in Hesse should be without Handkäse, alongside Äbbelwoi, the local apple wine.

Is Hessischer Handkäse made in the Rheingau?

The protected area is the whole of Hesse, which includes the Rheingau. German Wikipedia names four Handkäse dairies in Hesse in 2014: three in Hochelheim, part of Hüttenberg in central Hesse, and Käserei Horst in Groß-Gerau. None of those is in the Rheingau.

What is in Spundekäs?

German Wikipedia gives the base recipe as two parts fresh cheese to three parts high-fat quark, stirred smooth and seasoned with pepper, salt and sweet paprika, with chopped or ringed onions on top or beside it. Many estates add butter, egg yolk, crème fraîche, garlic, caraway or capers.

Which wine goes with Spundekäs?

Rheingau.de says it goes perfectly with a fruity Rheingau Riesling. German Wikipedia says it is classically drunk with white wine and served in practically all wine houses and Straußwirtschaften of Rheinhessen and the Rheingau.

Where does the name come from?

Rheingau.de traces it to the Spund, the wooden bung that sealed a wine cask: the mass was first stamped out in small round shapes that recalled one.

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