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Schwarzer Adler in Vogtsburg - a paradise for Bordeaux drinkers

Bordeaux freaks know what I'm talking about. About a restaurant in Baden that is not only known for its classic cuisine, but also for one of the best wine lists in Germany. Well over 2000 items are listed in closely printed columns, and owner Fritz Keller is considered as much a connoisseur of all things liquid as his legendary father, the blessed Franz, who once fought doggedly for dry German wine. More than ten years ago, when I stopped in for a test run on behalf of the then renowned restaurant guide Schlemmeratlas, the senior wandered from table to table and seemed quite surprised that I didn't order a bottle of Bordeaux. He was happy to check what was available, he offered with great hospitality. I politely declined, considering the distance I still had to travel. Even then, you could only find more Médoc, Pomerol and Graves in a few places in the Republic, and I probably wouldn't calculate that favourably a second time. Rows of Cheval Blancs for under 300 euros are still available today, various vintages of Las Cases for considerably less than 200 - those looking for big names will find what they are looking for, as will those customers who appreciate a mature wine with less celebrity. (I don't know what pleasure the 1967 Château Jacques Blanc, completely unknown to me at 57 euros, still gives today - but at this price one can dare to try). Fortunately, the Schwarze Adler in Vogtsburg-Oberbergen also has a sommelière who is good at something: Melanie Wagner probably doesn't know every wine of every vintage - how could she? - from the immense rock cellar, but she has the right one in mind for every need. What she recommended to me, from the category of just affordable and somewhat more mature drops, turned out to be a 1970 Pape-Clément, which was expertly uncorked at the side table.

The author tasting

It was precisely at this moment, as the corkscrew turned out of its sealing material again, that I remembered the reason I had come to the Kaiserstuhl in the first place. It was only marginally about the Adler, it was essentially about corks. More precisely: about corks that are not made of cork. For the following morning, a press agency had invited to a tasting at the Schätzle winery, a few kilometres away from the Schwarzer Adler. Leopold Schätzle senior, like his son Leopold Schätze junior, is an advocate of what the laymen call plastic corks and the experts call synthetic closures. Not that he would close all wines completely with these stoppers, but he uses Nomacorc for white as well as red wines, even for noble sweet tips. There might be something to the artificial corks, I thought at that moment when I looked at the real cork of the 1970 Bordeaux I had just opened. Not only had it slipped out of the bottle quite easily, but it also looked very crumbly. Not too good a sign, and I was beginning to worry whether I shouldn't order a youthful Pinot Gris from Kellerschen Weingut to be on the safe side and reject the red wine. But then the face of the pre-tasting sommelière relaxed, my test sip gave the final all-clear: the Pape-Clément was in top condition, seemed a few years younger than the label proved, and made me forget the decrepit cork. Even a bad tap can protect an excellent wine; the evening became a culinary experience.

Schätzle bottles without natural cork

The next morning, my eyes turned to those bottles that had been prepared at the Schätzle winery in Endingen. The senior winemaker, a chatterbox in front of the Lord, explained the rise of the winery from a very small business to one of the most successful companies in the Kaiserstuhl region. Without courage, this would not have been possible, and Schätzle also showed courage in matters of closure. Ten years ago, many producers still shunned any alternative stopper like the devil shuns the proverbial holy water. At the time, there were rumours about plastic cork taint, and although many wineries were dissatisfied with the quality of natural corks, only a few dared to try a Schätzle-style solution. Now the house's Pinot Gris are rather less designed for ten years of ageing, and most Pinot Noirs are also likely to be drunk when younger. So I wasn't too excited when I arrived at the winery and the winemaker started opening the bottles. But then the joy was clear, the surprise impressive. None of the wines bottled with Nomacorc closures showed notes of maturity that seemed to deviate from the regular state of the wines. It was not surprising that the 2004 Pinot Gris seemed slightly tanned and smelled discreetly of coffee, and the ripe 2002 Pinot Blanc - quite dark in colour, with an aftertaste of tobacco and a little honey - must not have tasted and smelled any different when closed with natural corks instead of plastic ones. Unfortunately, I only had a direct comparison between the classic and the new closure with one wine. The 2008 Spätburgunder from the Hecklinger Burg Lichteneck vineyard, sealed with cork, seemed significantly riper than the wine sloshing in the neighbouring glass, whose container was fitted with a synthetic closure. Here slightly ripened fruit with berry and spice notes as well as creamy hints (cork), there cool, youthful fruit, clearer, more distinct (plastic). Whether this was just a random result or whether one can derive a rule from it cannot be definitively said due to the thin data material. However, this sample certainly gave a small indication that the bad reputation of the plastic stopper does not quite correspond to reality; the rule that such bottles always have to be emptied within two or three years, which is also often reported by journalists, certainly does not correspond to the truth - especially since the stoppers used a decade ago have long since been replaced by improved types.

Bordeaux without end at the Schwarzer Adler

By the way, I enjoyed the rest of the 1970 Pape-Clément the evening after the Schätzle tasting, unfortunately no longer at the Schwarzer Adler, but at home. The wine, carefully plugged with a new cork, had lost some of its fruitiness and freshness, but was still a lot of fun. Only the food from one of Germany's most likeable inns I had to do without at the kitchen table at home. I could only dream of saddle of venison with gingerbread, foie gras with Gewürztraminer jelly or truffled poularde in a bubble - only available to order in advance. The next time I'm lucky enough to stop at the Adler in Oberbergen, I might even order a '69 Comtesse or save up for something second-classified from pre-war years. I won't worry about the cork then: I'm sure that sommelière Melanie Wagner won't hesitate for a second to exchange the bottle for a better one at the slightest hint of off-flavours. There won't be a shortage of supplies here any time soon. And somehow plastic corks don't really fit into the dignified ambience of this restaurant: Franz Keller, I suspect, would have turned away in horror.

Schwarzer Adler, Badbergstraße 23, 79235 Vogtsburg-Oberbergen, Tel. 07662/933010, www.franz-keller.de, keller@franz-keller.de

Weingut Leopold Schätzle, Wilhelmshöfe 1, 79346 Endingen, Tel. 07642/3361, www.schaetzle-weingut.de, leopold@schaetzle-weingut.de

All photos (W.Faßbender)

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