The local cheeses of Rheingau with the local wines that suit them, and why they work.
The cheeses of Rheingau with the wines made beside them. Pairings marked as a local tradition are the ones a regional source names; the rest are our own picks, and say so.
Rheingau.de, the region's tourism site, says Spundekäs goes perfectly with a fruity Rheingau Riesling. In these off-dry and medium-sweet wines, fruit and a little sweetness soften the raw onion and spice, and racy acidity cuts the butter and cream.
Bottles to try:
German Wikipedia says Spundekäs is classically eaten with white wine and served in practically every wine house and Straußwirtschaft of the Rheingau. It names no grape; these dry Rieslings, light to medium in body, are our examples, their high acidity cutting the cream and onion.
Bottles to try:
These bottle-fermented, dry Riesling Sekts have high acidity and citrus fruit, and the bubbles lift the butter and cream of the spread. Their toasty lees notes sit well beside the pepper and onion.
Bottles to try:
Apple wine is the usual drink with Handkäse, and German Wikipedia names dry white wine for areas such as Rheinhessen and the Palatinate. A dry, high-acid Riesling meets the onion and vinegar marinade with acidity of its own.
Bottles to try:
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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.
Handkäse marinated in onions, vinegar and oil. The EU single document calls it one of the best-known ways of eating the cheese.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
