Wine for choucroute garni?

[Tran_Bronstein]

I’m speaking as more of a foodie than a Berserker, but I also have to give in my vote for the dry Alsacian Pinot Gris. A good choucroute garni is of course both hearty and yet highly acidic due to the cooked sauerkraut and that makes it oddly tough to pair.

Red wine I personally feel is absolutely out of the question as no matter how much sausage and meat is used as the “garni,” the sauerkraut will clash very unpleasantly with the red. It really needs a rich wine with a bit of a yeasty backbody and Pinot Gris from Alsace is the only thing I can think of in my admittedly limited palate that even remotely fits the bill.

[Fred_Daniels]

Anybody for spatburgunder? I’ve always liked a light burgundy (Bourgogne or village level) on the cool side with such a dish…but otherwise would go for a dry Alsace riesling or pinot blanc/gris. It’s not the best food/wine match, but if one must have red the former work well.

[James_Wright]

@Claude Kolm

By chance, we’re going to have choucroute tomorrow night, but I expect it’ll be a German trocken with it – too hard to find a really dry Alsatian these days (unless I decide to pull out the 1988 Z-H Rangen de Thann).

last I checked, the entry level Trimbach riesling was decently dry, and the Leon Beyer riesling seems to never have wavered from its classical stance.

[Michael_Lux]

The traditional drink is beer indeed.

I agree on Sylvaner. Try “Le Grand A du Petit Leon” from Roland Schmitt…
Edelzwicker is not necessarily a bad choice but it’s generally not a good wine. At almost all wineries, it’s sold in 1l bottles and it’s meant to be the cheap every day wine that is also used for cooking. Nowadays, almost only used for cooking in most places I know. Even local restaurants do serve Riesling or Sylvaner as the “cheap” stuff that is not served by the bottle.

As for Pinot Gris, the problem is that it’s so often off-dry that I simply do not even think about this to go with Choucroute.

[James_Wright]

of course most Edelzwicker is more Zwicker than ever it is edel

but nottoolongago, Meyer-Fonné had a very respectable litre in the Americn market…

[Claude_Kolm]

@James Wright

@Claude Kolm

By chance, we’re going to have choucroute tomorrow night, but I expect it’ll be a German trocken with it – too hard to find a really dry Alsatian these days (unless I decide to pull out the 1988 Z-H Rangen de Thann).

last I checked, the entry level Trimbach riesling was decently dry, and the Leon Beyer riesling seems to never have wavered from its classical stance.

Haven’t seen Beyer around here for many years, unfortunately. I’ve never been thrilled by Trimbach entry level. There are others that are dry, like Kuentz-Bas, Roland Schmitt but even with the new labelling system, it’s more effort than it’s worth. I went instead with two lovely GGs – Felseneck and Juffer-Sonnenuhr – and I could scarcely have been happier.

[James_Wright]

@Claude Kolm

@James Wright

@Claude Kolm

By chance, we’re going to have choucroute tomorrow night, but I expect it’ll be a German trocken with it – too hard to find a really dry Alsatian these days (unless I decide to pull out the 1988 Z-H Rangen de Thann).

last I checked, the entry level Trimbach riesling was decently dry, and the Leon Beyer riesling seems to never have wavered from its classical stance.

Haven’t seen Beyer around here for many years, unfortunately. I’ve never been thrilled by Trimbach entry level. There are others that are dry, like Kuentz-Bas, Roland Schmitt but even with the new labelling system, it’s more effort than it’s worth. I went instead with two lovely GGs – Felseneck and Juffer-Sonnenuhr – and I could scarcely have been happier.

glad that Germany did the trick—

Trimach has always been solid, and certainly among the drier in this category.

but my favourite Trimach Moment—although a 1989 Frédéric Emile VT consumed with great oysters three weeks ago is a close second—
was the time when Hubert visited the store where I worked, and pitched a hissy
because we had the Alsace wines too close to the German wines on the sales floor…