Restaurant review: Wine bar Rutz, Berlin

March 10, 2011

Inside Wine Bar Rutz, Berlin (before renovation)

Well, lent has just started, so why not write about the good life? Since a long time I wanted to tell you about “Weinebar Rutz”, a gourmet restaurant in the middle of Berlin.

My wine-lover-gourmet-wine blogger friend Swetlana Kittke took me there on a beautiful evening. We had a meal together and enjoyed a wonderful German Riesling wine. At the time, I thought I will never forget the wine, but now 3-4 years later I admit that I do not remember which Riesling we had chosen (and I cannot find my notes any more). Nonetheless, the Wine Bar Rutz is a fabulous place.

While surfing the internet today, I learned that the wine bar and restaurant was closed for renovations. It will open again on April 1st. But the event of the year will be its 10 anniversary celebration on April 9th with a special offer of a gourmet meal (249 EURO/person, I hope the wine is included) called “10 years -10 courses – 10 star cooks”.

The modern cuisine

I am usually not a fan of the “designer cuisine” (as a true country boy I like the rustic food of the Mediterranean better) but I must admit that the taste of the dish above, though difficult to identify, was just marvellous.

The team at Wine Bar Rutz is composed of Marco Mueller, a one-star Micheline cook, one of the most innovative cooks in Germany, it is said, Billy Wagner, sommelier and Carsten Schmidt, the general manager. Last year the wine and food guide Gault Millau awarded 17 of 20 point to the restaurant. The wine list with about 600 different wines is very impressive too. Most of my favourite Rieslings can be found there.

Address:
Wine Bar Rutz Restaurant
Chausseestrasse 8
10115 Berlin Mitte, Germany
Tel.:+49-30-24628760
info@weinbar-rutz.de
www.weinbar-rutz.de

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Lunch at the University Cafe in Melbourne

March 6, 2011

University Cafe on a glass of wine

According to the Trip Advisor website visited today, the University Cafe in Melbourne is ranked 665 of 2,131 restaurants in the second largest metropolis of Australia.

When on the farm and vineyard in Glenburn we rarely come to town. This was an exceptional day.

We had visited Melbourne University to inform ourselves about the place since both our daughters, Lucy and Charlotte, intend to enrol their after they have finished their IB in Bangkok. The university people were very friendly and we had an appointment for lunch in Carlton with some very old friends.

Without further ado we jumped into the University Cafe, an eatery right in middle of Lygon street in the heart of Carlton. Before even considering food, we ordered a bottle of crisp Riesling from Delatite Winery, located near Mansfield in the Upper Goulburn Wine Region.

Ah, wine from Upper Goulburn, our wine region. Our own little vineyard is located at the most southern tip of this new wine region of Victoria. Delatite Winery, near Mansfield, planted in 1968 is one of the oldest vineyards there.

Delatite is committed to organic practices in the vineyard and winery. The winery was established in 1982 by Robert and Vivienne Ritchie. Today, their son David is running the family business. Delatite is famous for its aromatic wines. Their Riesling has won many international and national awards. The ‘2009 Delatite Riesling’ was a natural choice.

2009 Delatite Riesling

The wine went beautifully with the food, mostly fish and other seafood dishes. The crisp apple and citrus aromas with its finely balanced acids is a great refreshment during a warm summers day. Frankly speaking, I think the Delatite Riesling is the best Riesling the Upper Goulburn has to offer.

Mixed side salad

Ruccola with parmesan

Seafood risotto

Delicious mussels

Seafood pasta

The happy diners: Joe Mauch, Anthony Arthur, Charlotte, Lucy, Rainer and Margit Adam

Overall, the service was good, the quality of the food decent, and the atmosphere despite the lunchtime crowed, to our liking. It was good to meet up with friends and relax.

Address:
The University Cafe
255 Lygon Street | Carlton,
Melbourne 3053, Australia
Te.: +61-03-9347 0328

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Total abstinence!

March 5, 2011

Total abstinence sounds like the death penalty to a wine drinker cum enthusiast. Goodness me what would life be without the wonderful fluid pressed out of mature grapes, delicately fermented, matured in barrels (or steel tanks) and “uncorked” on the dinner table?

Well, how could I know? I found this monument in a little park just outside the Melbourne University Law School. Jurist should be a sober lot, at least in court and when arguing a case. I could not resist taking a photo of the inscription which is so anachronistic to a wine geek.

I hope Thomas Ferguson’s soul will forgive me when I invite you to enjoy a glass of wine, right now. Cheers

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Lantenhammer Distillery, Bavaria, Germany

March 2, 2011

We were lucky. At he last Christmas basar at the German Embassy, we were able to buy two bottles of German “Obstbrand” or fruit brandy produced by Lantenhammer. From the different fruits on offer (pear, peach, plum and others), we choose “sloe” or blackthorn (prunus spinosa or German: Schlehen).

The sloe or blackthorn bush, a deciduous scrub or little tree which grows up to five meters tall, produces small blue berries which are rather inedible, tart and astringent, if consumed fresh. But after a hard frost when the tannins are withdrawn and if processed (as jam for instance) they give a wonderful aroma. Distilled they make a delicious “eau de vie”/fruit brandy, great for your stomach after a rich meal.

The Lantenhammer Sloe brandy

The Lantenhammer Distillery is located in southern Bavaria at the very picturesque lake Schliersee. The boutique Distillery was founded in 1928 and is run by the Stetter family since generations. To produce artisan products of the highest quality is the aim of the family business. Most of the work is done by hand. Andrea and Florian Stetter organise the family business with the help of 20 employees.

Our resolution: next year we will buy much more, maybe a whole box of different fruit brandies.

Address:
Lantenhammer Distillery
Obere Tiefenbachstraße 8
83734 Hausham, Germany
Tel.: +49-8026-9248-0
www.lantenhammer.de

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Sweets for my sweet.

March 1, 2011

Life on the farm is, yes, you will not believe it, sweet. There are many reasons for that, one is that food is prepared in the kitchen and not bought ready made from a supermarket. Also delivery services do not cover the Australian countryside so that the delivery of cooked food would be an option.

When Hilary, our neighbour from up the road brought a big bucket of forest berries from her garden, we could not but prepare some pancakes with wipped cream. It was delicious. Thank’s Hilary for the treat.

Pancake with forest fruit and cream – feels like heavan

“Above” Two Hills Vineyard

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Music at the Yarra Glen Grand Hotel

February 27, 2011

The Yarra Glen Grand Hotel

One of the great things in the Australian countryside is the many occasions live music can be enjoyed. From blues to country and western to blue grass and hilly billy as well as jazz and rock, all music styles are on offer.

The last Sunday before my departure I had the chance to listen to Broderick Smith, an icon figure in Australian music and well known for his involvement with the Dingoes, a country rock band from the 1970s. He played together with a guitar player in the Yarra Glen Grand Hotel.

The music was great and I had to buy a CD from Broderick. The atmosphere in the pub was good too. Friends drifted in an out. I missed Australia already before I even left it behind. I love these Sunday afternoons with live music at the pub.

Broderick Smith and his mate

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Restaurant review: The Grand Hotel in Healesville

February 26, 2011

The Grand Hotel in a painting in the hotel’s dining room

Lunching in the countryside is a wonderful thing. The picturesque country town of Healesville (population about 7,000 souls) is an ideal destination when holidaying in Victoria. Since my brother-in-law Michael and his wife Helen live there, we often loiter in its streets and seek out the hip and not so hip places of food and wine worship.

A nice place to have a rustic country lunch is the Grand Hotel, right in the middle of the town’s main street. The dining room is a quiet and comfortable place. There is also a bar to the left of the entrance. The staff is very friendly and the service is good.

The menu has a wide selection of dishes, even a Thai style beef salad. We went for the rural, home made type, sausages with potato mash and gravy and fish and chips. Others of our party had lamb chops or the roast of the day.

Sausages

Fish and chips

There was a wide selection of local and not so local wines. We went for a wine from a more distant place, Western Australia. The Valley of the Giants was on special promotion, so why not taste it.

We selected the ‘2010 Valley of the Giants crisp dry white’. Valley of the Giants is a wine-making venture sourcing its grapes from growers in Western Australia. Nothing special so to say, not a boutique vineyard or so, just some people who make “technically clean” wine.

The front label

But the wine matched the occasion. It was a rather hot summers day and a crisp white wine was just the right choice with our meals.

The back label

The Valley of the Giants is a wilderness region in Western Australia attracting many tourists who love nature. In the village of Denmark an ancient forest is to be found of giant tingle trees. One can go on a ‘tree-top-walk’, about 40 meters off the ground.

A happy diner

My suggestion: if you visit Healesville check out the many beautiful places including the wildlife sanctuary and after that have lunch at the Grand Hotel. It’s worth it.

Address:
The Grand Hotel
270 Maroonday Hwy,
Healesville VIC 3777
Tel.: =61-3-5962 4003

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Sauvignon Blanc by Alan Johns, Yering Farm Wines

February 23, 2011

Our girls had played touch rugby the whole day and were very hungry when they came home. It was a wonderful mild tropical day, with sunshine and blue sky. Why not have a Spanish meal: Paella came to mind.

Paella in the pot

Paella on the plate

We had just the right wine to go with the spicy and robust Spanish dish. From our Christmas holidays on the farm in Glenburn we had brought with us a bottle of ‘2010 Sauvignon Blanc’ from the Run Rabbit Run series of Yering Farm.

2010 Sauvignon Blanc by Yering Farm Wines

Alan Johns the ower-wine maker of Yering Farm is also making our own wines (Two Hills Merlot). In 2010 Alan bought our Sauvignon Blanc grapes, and these grapes went into the ‘2010 Sauvignon Blanc’ of the Run Rabbit Run series. So we were quasi drinking our won stuff. I do not know what other grapes went into this vintage but I am very proud that Alan made such a good wine with it.

The back label

The Sauvignon Blanc is just the way I like it, fresh, young, zesty, full of flavour with fibrant acids and a good finish. I wish I would have access to this wine here in Bangkok. I urge you to try it if you can.

Address:
Yering Farm Wines
St Huberts Rd
Yering
Victoria 3770 Australia
Tel.: +61 3 9739 0461
Fax: +61 3 9739 0467

Email: info@yeringfarmwines.com

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2011 party at Two Hills Vineyard

February 20, 2011

From time to time we organize a big party at Two Hills Vineyard; that’s what we did on January 2nd, 2011. We invited some of our neighbours, friends and family to spend an afternoon with us.

We were very lucky, the weather played along. The second of January turned out to be a splendid summer’s day. We were busy preparing the food, cooling the wine, getting soft drinks for the kids and so on.

We put out the garden furniture. I prepared the grill which is a man’s job in Australia. The “barbie” as they call it, is something like the holy grail for the weaker sex, the hormone driven, muscular men of down under.

According to some expert witnesses, I did well. Not bad for a “semi-vegetarian”, I guess. We had lashings of food and buckets of wine. In the following I will introduce some of our guests.

fltr: Ruby, Helen, Jenny, Timo and Michael

fltr: Heidi, Steve, Brownie, Helen and Michael

The kids table

Netsi and Stacy

Rhonda, Jenny and Hilary (background Timo and Richard)

Our lovely neighbours, Richard from down and Hilary from up the road

And now some cool dudes:

Brownie

Steve

Timo (should anybody say winemakers cannot play cricket)

Cricket was the game of choice of the kids and adults alike

Australian crayfish from our dam

Persian spicy mango by Ali

Meagan’s Pavlova, the Australian dessert

Men in black

Busy talking friends

Rhiannon and Bill

My love for turbans always shows when I have got a few drinks.

I do not have photos of most of the food. I was just too busy. The yabbies (a kind of Australian crayfish) came from our dam where we caught them with nets. They were superb. I just got one of them.

We drank of lot of our 2004 Merlot and other wines and beers.
Thanks folks for following our invitation and making our day.
It was splendid indeed.
See you at Two Hills next year.

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Water? No problem – new tanks at Two Hills Vineyard

February 19, 2011

On the farm in Glenburn, Australia we get our drinking water from the roof of our dwelling. It is stored in galvanized iron tanks. Our old tanks started to leak a couple of years ago. One of them collapsed almost completely last time we were there.

We needed new tanks. They were delivered last week. Jack and Dave, two local blokes made it all happen. Michael was there to make sure it went well. He also took the pictures below. Next time we come, we will have new water from new tanks. Thanks folks for helping.

No tanks being delivered

Newly installed water tanks

Out go the old ones

PS: Photos courtesy of Michael Meinhold. Thanks Michael.

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