For 4 people: 2 snake cucumbers (or 4 garden cucumbers), 200 g salmon fillet, 1 ice cube, 1 cup double cream, 4 cl dry vermouth (Noilly Prat), 2 sprigs fresh thyme, salt and pepper. Boiled potatoes.
Turn the salmon fillet, cut into strips, through the fine disc of a meat grinder with a good pinch of salt (or chop finely with a heavy, sharp knife). Then finely purée in a moulinette with the ice cube, adding the double cream and vermouth, season with salt and pepper. Peel the cucumbers, cut them in half crosswise and remove the seeds with a corer. Blanch the hollow cucumber halves briefly in salted water, rinse in ice water, pat dry and fill with the salmon mousse. Wrap the filled cucumber halves in buttered aluminium foil and cook in an oven preheated to 150 degrees for half an hour. Cut the cooked cucumbers into slices and sprinkle with the plucked thyme leaves. Boiled potatoes are delicious with this.
In the Riesling castle to Oestrich-Winkel
Until recently, the market leader has been of the opinion that among the high-quality grape varieties, Chardonnay and Riesling are to be considered equal. However, a remark heard in the garden of Schloß Vollrads gave food for thought. It came from Dr. Rowald Hepp, director of the estate, and said that regarding the variety of its scents, aromas and extracts, the Riesling was superior to the Chardonnay by far. And aren't they really confusingly similar, the Chardonnays? Especially those of the "international" type from the growing areas of the New World?
Well, it was a beautiful day, the cheerful ambience of the old, venerable wine castle did the rest, and Hepp spoke pro domo, because Schloß Vollrads is unique among the big wine estates of the Rheingau with a production of one hundred percent Riesling. During a tasting, however, the estate director was able to prove his high opinion of the variety of Riesling by means of the Vollrads wines, even though he has been managing the estate as late as last year.
The clear structure of the growths is striking. There are the quality wines of certain growing areas and the Prädikat wines Kabinett and Spätlese, which are vinified dry, semi-dry and fruity-lovely. Then there are Auslese, Beerenauslese and Trockenbeerenauslese up to Eiswein, a total of 26; a sparkling wine and two brandies are added.
There are no vineyard designations, which makes things even clearer; after all, the approximately fifty hectares of the estate are mostly rounded up around the castle. It's a fascinating game to imagine the wines with their clearly distinct flavor profiles with different foods. And to forget one's old familiar pigeonholes in the process. The shimmering golden 2009 Kabinett semi-dry, for example, which was given attractive richness by a long yeast storage, goes excellently with autumnal mushrooms and accompanies guinea fowl breast as well as pasta.
Hepp has returned to selected hand harvesting, he also does not think much of computer-controlled fermentation ("because one relies too much on technology") and is in the process of breeding his own fermentation yeasts. That one can only hold one's own on the increasingly crowded market with independent, clearly profiled wines is particularly clear to Hepp; after all, he wrote his doctoral thesis on "long-term trends on the world wine market".
In the estate restaurant, which is housed in the castle's Kavaliershaus, a cuisine is cultivated in which fish plays a leading role. Cucumbers stuffed with salmon are easy to recreate at home, and the Rieslings from Schloß Vollrads accompany them to perfection.
Schloß Vollrads
(outside, follow the signs)
65375 Oestrich-Winkel
Tel.: 06723-660, Fax: 6666
Gutsrestaurant: 06723-5270
Homepage: <link http: www.schlossvollrads.com _blank>www.schlossvollrads.com
from Waldemar Thomas