Breakfast in Baden (From York Press)

Breakfast in Baden

10:00am Saturday 24th September 2011 in Tipping's Tipples By Mike Tipping

In this week’s Tipping’s Tipples, MIKE TIPPING reports on a trip to Germany, where he discovers an unusual addition to the morning menu.

Seventies prog’ rockers Supertramp had breakfast in America, but breakfast in Baden is better. At least, that is, if you have an obsession for wine.

In Baden they have breakfast wine. Traditionally this is made from the delightfully named but rather uninteresting gutedel grape, you may know it better as chasselas. Fortunately, my recent visit to the region did not include any plans to taste gutedel, Baden has much more to offer then that. For the record, I adore wine but not with my muesli, yoghurt and frühstück wurst!

The theme, for the visit, was the pinot trio of grapes, pinot blanc, pinot gris and pinot noir. Or as the Germans would have it, weissburgunder, grauburgunder and spätburgunder.

Not all German wines are made with riesling – in fact, Germany is the third largest producer of pinot noir in the world. A good number of those pinot noir vines are in Baden, the southernmost of Germany’s wine regions. It was scorching hot and very humid when I visited last month. The region frequently tops the country’s sunshine stats.

At most of the winery stop-offs we found a quick dash to the cool comfort of the cellar, was in order.

Besides, cellars are a good place to taste wine.

My focus, this week, is on two wineries in the relatively low mountain range of Kaiserstuhl, an extinct volcano, in the south west of Baden. Pinot specialist Arne Bercher is part of a winemaking dynasty, as the tenth generation winemaker at Weingut Bercher in the little village of Burkheim.

He explains why he thinks the terroir is special: “Pinot noir does so nicely in the Kaiserstuhl because we have volcanic soils. This differs from anywhere else in Germany.”

Arne believes that wines from these sites have more ageing potential, and reckons his Bercher Burkheimer Feuerberg Spätburgunder Grand Cru 2008 should be good for the next 15 years or so. Rich and balanced with a racy acidity, it suggests black cherry, mocha, plum, cinnamon and liquorice. One to keep for Christmas Day 2018 perhaps?

Nearby at Weingut Dr Heger, in Ihringen, winemaker Joachim Heger believes the volcanic bedrock gives his wines a, “tangible mineral character”. Joachim’s wines, from his renowned Ihringer Winklerberg vineyard, are impressive all-round but his whites stand out for me.

They do indeed have a distinct minerality. I liked Dr Heger Ihringer Winklerberg Grauburgunder *** 2010 Grand Cru, which is smoky, full and expressive with citrus, orchard fruit and white pepper.

But my top pick would be Dr Heger Ihringer Winklerberg Weissburgunder *** 2010, Grand Cru. Clean, crisp, and bone dry, it has flavours of pear, apple and stone-minerals with a long, long finish.

Wines from both Bercher and Dr Heger, including my recommendations, are available in the UK from German wine specialist The Wine Barn (thewinebarn.co.uk).

I would not recommend, however, drinking any of these wines with breakfast!