Wine First

Funding for this series has been provided in part by the following... Up Norway curates Norwegian travel experiences in the footsteps of "New Scandinavian Cooking."

♪ No, take me home ♪ ♪ Take me home where I belong ♪ Vgan, the full taste of chocolate.

♪ ♪ [ Singing indistinctly ] ♪ This is a story of adventure, understanding that every step of the journey is vital.

This is the story of Evergood.

♪ My name is Liora Levi.

And I am Yolanda Añó.

Wine is my passion in life.

I am a sommelier traveling the world.

Am I am a food enthusiast.

In each episode, we will travel through the most beautiful wine regions of Europe, selecting three wines that define the area.

And we will bring those wines to very talented chefs and challenge them to prepare amazing dishes based off the wine.

Will the chefs succeed in making a dish of such a quality that it matches the wine?

It all remains to be seen, as we put wine first.

We are in Rheingau, the beautiful wine region stretched along the Rhine River in Germany.

Our mission is to find three wines with the biggest imprint from this region and present the wines to local chef Josef Laufer.

His task is to cook dishes that match the flavors of the wines.

Are you up for it?

In my life, wine always comes first, so that's fine.

Oh!

I think he's ready for it.

I'm ready for it, I think.

We'll see if he succeeds later on.

First, we have to find our special Rheingau wines.

Our first stop is the romantic town of Rudesheim to find Theresa Breuer.

She's the owner of the Georg Breuer Winery.

I know it's early, but Theresa always goes for a morning run.

We have to be sporty.

Hello, ladies!

Hello!

How are you?

Good to see you.

Have a little friend with us.

That's good.

She needs a walk, so... Running.

Let's go!

We'll just go left.

Okay.

Theresa is known for producing local Riesling wines, but what makes Theresa's Riesling so unique to Rheingau, and why bring her wine to the chef challenge?

We're about to find out, as Theresa takes us to a special place that shapes the Riesling she's producing.

What a nice viewpoint.

Giving you the feeling that you're kind of the queen of the world.

Yes.

So, after running, are you thirsty?

Of course.

I hope you're not thirsty to water, because we have a little wine bar up here.

This is a wine bar?

That's a wine house bar, yes.

[ Laughs ] So it's quite a special place.

No.

[ Both laugh ] ♪ Na na na ♪ Yes.

♪ Da na na ♪ Here we go.

Which one should we have?

Well, my recommendation would be, since we are in the middle of the steep slopes, we should go for the Terra Montosa, which represents exactly where we are.

Will you do all that?

It's your profession.

Sommelier, go for it.

No problem.

You girls sit down, and I'll -- I'll fix everything.

Very nice, very nice.

Cheers.

[ Glasses clinking ] Salud, cheers, oi!

[ Laughter ] Oh, after-run wine, mmm.

[ Laughs ] Nothing like it.

It's called Terra Montosa, which is out of the old Latin description of the area where we are.

"Terra" means the earth and "Montosa" the mountains, so it's the steep-slope Riesling.

I think the wine is wonderfully fresh with aromas and flavors of stone fruit, white flowers, and citrus, with a nice touch of minerality in the finish.

I have to say that the wine has a fantastic concentration.

Many guests I have here and when I'm showing around the vineyards, that time of the year, they're super confused how tiny the grapes are.

So, Riesling is this really, really tiny grape, with very small berries.

But that also means there is not so much juice but extremely high concentration and very intense flavors already in the berry.

And the skin is protecting all this juiciness -- that little juiciness and all these magic flavors inside.

You should actually not throw the seeds away, because they tell you a lot about the ripeness.

Ah!

And they should be brown?

Yes, when the seeds are totally brown, it's actually a sign for perfect ripeness.

So, flavor is very important, but the condition of the grape is also very, very important.

Can I ask you how old you were when your father passed away?

20.

Ooh.

And were you already finished with your studies?

With nothing.

I was starting in our estate with, like, a tiny, tiny knowledge of, like, helping picking, more or less, and, of course, drinking the wines here and there.

But I wasn't really, like, in the whole process.

When my father was passionate, he was really -- he was -- his heart was 100% for what he was, like, doing.

But we're carrying him and, of course, my grandfather with us every day on every bottle with every sip we are drinking.

Oh.

Cheers.

A drink -- that always helps.

[ Laughter, glasses clink ] Cheers.

♪ Before we make the final decision of which wine and local ingredient to choose for the chef's challenge, we sneak off to Drosselgasse, the Main Street of Theresa's hometown Rudesheim.

We need to taste some local specialities to map out what tastes and food we can expect from this area and to have some fun.

So, this is the famous Drosselgasse.

And this is where you have all the local delicacies and all the knickknacks.

[ Both laugh ] This we should try.

Ooh!

Ooh, it's steamy.

[ Laughs ] Like, it smells great.

Mmm.

This is delicious.

Good taste of butter.

Mmm.

[ Both laugh ] So this is why you don't see angry Germans -- because they all -- they eat all the sweet stuff all the time.

They must be happy.

It's time to get serious.

It's time to choose a bottle of wine and an ingredient for the chef challenge.

Theresa starts us off by presenting a platter of local foods from which we'll have to choose one specific ingredient for the chef to include in his dish for the challenge.

It looks delicious, like art.

We call it actually local tapas, and it's all from close by.

Wild-boar sausages.

We prefer, actually, to make sausage out of them before they are eating our grapes.

[ Laughs ] This is the local cheese.

It's called Handkaese mit Musik.

Like, a very, very intense cheese, and the music is actually an interpretation of the onions and what they do to you the day after.

[ Laughter ] Okay!

So you'll enjoy it tomorrow.

We'll taste the stinky cheese, or Handkaese, in a bit, but our mission is to choose a bottle of wine first.

This is a show about wine, after all.

Theresa presents us with three wines to choose from.

Only one is going to make the final cut.

I have brought the Terra Montosa, the very first one that we tasted from the steeper slopes.

And you'll also already know the Rudesheim types.

Not only doing white wines.

We also do a bit of red, and in that case, we use the grape that is called Spaetburgunder, internationally known of Pinot Noir.

I love this Pinot Noir.

I love Pinot Noir, or Spaetburgunder.

Anyway, Riesling and Pinot Noir, they're side by side.

One is red, one is white, one is very fruity, the other one is fruity, too, but the reds have more structure and a different texture.

However, we kind of made a choice already.

Up in the vineyard, the Terra Montosa, it's just -- it's special.

And I told Yolanda earlier today it's like, this is you.

This is -- "When I think about Theresa, I think about that hill."

Yeah.

Of vineyards.

And this is just -- it's the perfect blend of it.

I think you got the spirits over there, and if we are able to bring that into a bottle, and if you are then choosing it, that's very nice.

With the wine chosen for our chef challenge, it's time for Yolanda to decide on an ingredient to go with it.

After tasting all this, I think that this cheese could be the best item to put through with your wine for the chef.

But in order to be absolutely sure, we need to try the wine again.

To combine with it.

Yes, por favor.

Well, then we just do that.

I love reasons to open bottles.

I love how you just provide wine and glasses.

What do you have down there?

That's my business.

[ Laughter ] Okay.

Verdict.

Foodie.

♪ Yeah?

It's a match.

There's intensity of the cheese, the complexity of the wine, the creaminess of it.

And you need the acidity of a nice Riesling like this to cut it through.

Ahh!

Look at this view!

Oh, look!

Do you see over there?

It's like a Hollywood sign.

Basically, that is one vineyard, and there are lots of these special vineyards all over here.

Theresa's one was a blend of many of these top vineyards.

Her Terra Montosa kind of reflects the wine from this area.

Another guy, a self-made man, Johannes Leitz, he's making lots of different wines from single vineyards, so we could taste, like, all the different plots.

I like the idea.

So, you're saying that we're gonna have the same wine variety, the Riesling, same producer... Yes.

...same year... Yes.

...different taste?

Exactly.

I really like the idea of that.

I'm into the tiny little differences of flavors, so it sounds exciting.

Rudesheim-born Johannes Leitz is a wine legend specializing in Riesling.

He's hands-on and so is his son, Antonius, who aims to bring the winery into the next generation.

With 40 hectares of vineyards to his name, Johannes is one of the larger wine producers of the area.

I'm curious as to how his way of growing Riesling grapes will create a different taste in the wine than Theresa's wines.

Will it show another side of the area altogether?

Oh, wow!

Yeah.

I feel I'm the queen of the Rhine River Valley!

Yeah.

We can do "Titanic," you know?

You do like this.

We own the world!

We do!

Why is this place so genuinely good for Riesling?

Riesling is really not easy to grow.

It should be not too warm, because otherwise, although the sugar content raised, you have more alcohol.

And what is most valuable is in the Riesling, as warm it is, the acidity goes slowly down.

And that is so important for Riesling.

I think Riesling finds perfect conditions here.

I normally like to taste the soil.

What about this one?

This is not quartz, is it?

It's a part of it, yes, it is.

Definitely not salty.

[ Laughs ] No.

But you get this dry -- dryness on your palate that you do when you have a mineralic wine, as well.

I think it's a really typical, wonderful smell of Riesling like peaches and pear and a little lemon zest.

I think it's really a yellow fist that's coming out of the glass.

But what strikes me is also the salinity of it.

Salty flavors at the finish.

It's the soil, it was.

We are really standing on soil that's quartz rocks.

And what I think is also great is, like, this is Berg Roseneck, and up there is the Berg Schlossberg and the Kaisersteinfels.

Exactly.

And they taste completely different, but it is just on the other side of the bend.

Really, I call it the Magic Triangle.

It's -- I think the distance is around 600 feet.

They are so different in the glass.

Riesling -- I think Riesling is one of the best varieties to show terroir off.

And terroir, as you know, is a combination of factors that will have an effect on how the wine eventually tastes.

The soil, of course, where the grape is grown, the grape variety itself, the inclination of the vineyard, the drainage, the climate -- a collective word for all these things is "terroir."

So, this press, it's for the whole bunch.

That's 'cause all seeds and the -- the -- the stem all comes together.

Yes, that's definitely no problem.

The only thing that comes out is only the juice just through these holes.

They have to clean it with a toothbrush, huh?

Eh, more like, more like, yeah, but clean-- cleaning is a lot of work.

I can imagine.

So, I wonder what happens when this is full.

We have to close it and give it a little turn so we have some more space to fill it back up.

Ah!

Wonderful.

Samba.

[ Both laugh ] [ Liquid sloshing ] And now what you're hearing is the juice flowing out.

Ah!

[ Laughs ] Yes!

That's perfect.

So, here's our juice.

Please.

Very, very, very fresh juice.

I taste potential.

Oh, wow.

Really nice to hear that.

It's the fruit of our hard work.

Yeah.

Well, this was the Berg Roseneck.

Now, we go only 50 meter higher.

Same soil.

Okay.

But a different elevation.

Berg Kaisersteinfels, also 2017.

And even harvest is 10 days later, and that really means a lot.

It's a completely different aroma.

Isn't it amazing?

And it grows only over here.

So, it still has the salinity and the minerality, but not even close to what Berg Roseneck has.

But this is much more creamy.

Yep.

They're like brothers.

Brother from another mother.

Can you say that?

Absolutely.

So, it's just so strange, and I think that a lot of people have no idea about this, that a wine can be made from exactly the same grape within 50 meters of altitude or just next to each other, and still, they can taste completely different.

And I think that the Berg Roseneck, it has this very tight line with a nice salinity, the nice minerality, the lighter fruit style, and then you have the Berg Kaisersteinfels.

It is a little bit of a creamier, richer, more concentrated style.

And if I was to choose between the two, I think...

I think I would go with the Berg Kaisersteinfels.

This is what I think of when I think of having a really nice glass of Riesling from Rudesheim -- something concentrated and creamy like this.

Creamy Riesling, not your everyday Riesling wine.

How will it combine, though, with ingredient Yolanda might choose for the chef challenge?

Okay.

Drumroll.

[ Imitates drumroll ] Ah!

Berg Kaisersteinfels.

I was rooting for this one.

[ Laughs ] I try it, actually.

You did?

What's up with you and drinking wine all day long?

♪ ♪ You got my attention, baby ♪ Guilty.

Well, since you already tasted it, maybe you have an idea what you could use for it then.

You know, my grandma used to prepare a beautiful pumpkin soup.

And at harvest time, she used grape juice in it.

So I thought why not use a pumpkin with the wine?

We have a plan.

Pumpkin with Riesling.

This is getting more and more interesting.

Two down, one to go.

We now have two Rieslings, and I want to search for a red wine as our third and final wine for the chef challenge.

Can Rheingau offer up a red wine with the same quality as the Rieslings it's so well-known for?

The final winery we are headed off to is also a family winery.

Ever since 1799, actually, the Jakob Jung Winery is run by cool cat Alex Jung.

Hooded sweatshirt, cap, moody smile -- this is how Alex welcomes us to the winery.

Alex is proud of his vineyards, but before Alex takes us through the vineyards, he wants to take us to the depths underground, where the magic happens.

[ Laughs ] That's a door.

Old wine bottles are stored for perfection.

But there is also something else maturing -- revealing a distinct smell.

This is what you meant with something else is maturing here.

They spray it with Riesling and then they, like, rub it on the cheese, and they have to turn around and rub again.

Oh, ay, the cheese.

Sounds like a wine spa, kind of.

Being wrapped and all soaked in it, in beautiful wine.

Very intense, very intense.

You should taste some of it.

I would love to.

Sure, sure, sure.

Mm.

Okay.

What I'm seeing here...

These are -- These are flowers.

It's -- Yeah, edible dried flowers.

Mmm!

You are my hero.

With wine?

Sure!

We are going to have Spaetburgunder Pinot Noir, 2015, Steinmorgen.

Some of the smoky flavors from the barrel and some of the nice, flowery flavors from the cheese you have, that's, for me, a very good match.

Yeah, truly love each other.

I know.

I think so too.

They told me that they are lovers.

[ Both laugh ] They just told me the secret.

Says here Pinot Noir, or Spaetburgunder, as they see in Germany.

Yes, that's one of our Spaetburgunder barrels.

This is now 2018 Spaetburgunder.

It's completely bone dry, completely fermented.

So it fermented on the skins.

And afterwards, we pressed the skins, and it's now in this barrel for like about 10 months.

It's important to ferment on the skins.

Otherwise you'll get white wine, 'cause the color of grapes is in the skin.

It's time to decide on the final wine as we ascend into the majestic Jung vineyards.

So, this is a Spaetburgunder Erbach Steinmorgen.

Yes.

This is actually -- Erbach Steinmorgen is exactly the vineyard where we are, and this is the grapes which are growing just behind us.

What do you think?

I love the spiciness of it.

Mm-hmm.

The astringency that you feel in the skin, you have a little bit of it here as well, which is nice, but Pinot Noir or Spaetburgunder doesn't have a lot of tannins, which is very nice.

Makes it silky soft.

I think that the barrel aging just makes it -- rounds it off and gives it that extra spice and almost a little bit of a smoky character to it... ...which is I think is very... Elegant.

Very elegant, absolutely.

We will need to go for the red this time.

Our search for our wines and locally ingredients has ended, and it's time for Chef Josef Laufer to meet his challenge head on.

Josef Laufer grew up in this area and is a very popular local chef with many accolades.

His three dishes have to match the qualities of our three selected wines.

Has he succeeded?

It is the moment of truth as our wine producers arrive to give their verdicts.

We start with the Terra Montosa vintage 2018 we chose at the Breuer Winery and the first dish, a low-fat sour milk cheese tart with Brussels sprout salad, dried beef, and mustard-seed cherries.

A lot of people don't like Handkaese, actually, because it's a really strong-tasting cheese, but in the way we're going to cook it and we'll present it in this tart will be great.

Super, super excited how he will, like, form it into a dish, and then I hope that my wine just, like, kicks it with the acidities.

I'm pretty sure it will be excellent with the minerality of this wine, the complexity with the herbly flavors in the wine will be a great match with the Handkaese.

Has Josef managed to control the extreme flavors of the Handkaese or sour-milk cheese and make them harmonize with the wine?

It remains to be seen.

But what do you think, Theresa?

I was super surprised by the crunchiness of the tart.

I really like that it has a completely different texture than actually the cheese has, and you get, like, a crispy, crunch, creamy inside, and yeah.

Nice outside.

To be honest, I don't need the meat.

Gives some smokiness, gives some saltiness.

But I actually also think it's not...

It's not pushing the wine.

It's time for our second dish with Johannes Leitz's wine.

Berg Kaisersteinfels.

Right.

[ Laughter ] Correct.

She did very well.

Very well.

Thank you, Yolanda.

This is a vegetarian course with pumpkin puree from Hokkaido pumpkin with caramelized chicory and pappardelle stuffed with celery.

I love pumpkin in every type, especially as a soup, and I think that sweety, earthy style of the pumpkin matched the wine very well.

My idea is doing a little bit spicy because of the sweetness in the wine from the yellow fruit, which is in this nice, sweety wine.

I tasted it to compare with the pumpkin.

I thought about chicory.

Hmm.

No?

I'm a bit careful about chicory because it tends to be quite bitter, and for me, it ruins my enjoyment for other flavors.

Will the pumpkin fit the Riesling?

Cheers.

Cheers.

Yes.

Salud.

Mmm.

Really extreme aromas.

Bitterness of the chicory and the earthiness of the pumpkin.

And it's actually a wonderful vegetarian dish.

It is.

Absolutely.

In the first moment that I had the pumpkin, I was a little surprised how sweet it is.

It might be quite a good year for pumpkins.

It was a very warm summer.

[ Laughter ] And I was still a little afraid if it's not too sweet for the wine because the wine, more or less, is bone-dry and has a very high minerality.

And finally, Alex Jung's wine, the Erbach Steinmorgen Pinot Noir from 2015, where the big challenge was to match the flavors of the dish with the smokiness of the wine.

The ingredient chosen for your wine is a bit, um, abstract.

Now, the ingredient.

Ta-da!

Oh!

Yeah.

Happy meal.

Yes, exactly.

It will be a bit difficult to bite.

It's supposed to be something smoky.

Okay.

You know, when they toast barrels, if they do it in a very -- like in this wine, it comes this light, smoky taste, so... Yeah, let's see how we're going to put this one into the oven and see what comes out after a few hours?

Voilà!

Slowly smoked breast and leg of duck on parsnips with chanterelle mushrooms and plums.

Cheers.

Salud.

Cheers.

Okay, this looks beautiful to me, and I just can't help -- I just love the little chef's hat.

[ Laughter ] What do you think, Alex?

The duck is very tender, but you have that nice, crispy crust.

You can pick up that smoky flavor that matches very good with the wine.

Also, you have some fruit in the dish.

Wonderful.

It's almost like the wine is in the dish itself.

But that's what I was just about to say.

I'm so sure that he used the wine to make some of the sauces.

You find the wine in the dish.

Have you seen that there was missing some of the bottle?

[ Laughter ] When he poured the wine?

I guess it's in the sauce.

Imagine you're excited to hear what our reaction or verdicts are.

Yeah.

Let's start with you, Theresa.

To be very honest, I could easily had it as a vegetarian dish.

It was just to pick up the salty part of the... So next time, two slices of tart and no meat for me.

Okay.

And then I'm like, full, full, full on.

Johannes.

It was a great combination to have all these great aromas, especially the earthiness of the pumpkin and the wine because it's a very, very stone-driven wine.

It was a great match.

Cool.

Yeah, thank you.

Danke.

Thank you.

And finally, Alex.

Use the microphone, please.

[ Laughter ] I had the smoky, that smoky duck.

It was a good match with the Spaetburgunder because you had that nice acidity from the plums, and you had also that smoky flavor that, like, kicked up a little bit that duck.

I think this was a really good matching, wasn't it?

Yeah, definitely, definitely.

Cool.

That was perfect, yeah.

Wine does change.

It changes with the food that it's being served with, and I think that you made a beautiful interpretation, a two-way or a three-way mirror, even, of all these dishes that complemented the wines, and, well, cheers to you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

It's been a great adventure through one of the top wine regions of Germany, Rheingau.

They have perfected their craft through generations of wine making and will continue to do so for generations to come.

We'll be back.

♪ ♪ For more inspiration, visit us at winefirsttv.com.

Funding for this series has been provided in part by the following... Up Norway curates Norwegian travel experiences in the footsteps of "New Scandinavian Cooking."

♪ No, take me home ♪ ♪ Take me home where I belong ♪ Vgan, the full taste of chocolate.

♪ ♪ [ Singing indistinctly ] ♪ This is a story of adventure, understanding that every step of the journey is vital.

This is the story of Evergood.

♪