Wine Flight through Berlin

Wineflight through Berlin

Our tip: Take the S-Bahn or U-Bahn in style and let yourself be gondolaed to the vinophile addresses. Berlin's wine institutions incorporate the city as a space of the all-too-human, including the sometimes somewhat moody directness of its inhabitants, into their locations. The guests - Berliners and locals by choice - are now international, cosmopolitan, sociable and very active. The aura of many restored, transformed or newly built places after reunification thus flows into the glass. Although now rare, the culture of hundred-year-old pubs still exists in some places. They have survived wars and catastrophes, were almost never renovated and radiate a grandeur that in its patinated exoticism exerts an almost reverential attraction on tourists. Time has simply stood still here - at least it often seems that way.

This includes the warmly panelled "Kurpfalz Weinstuben", carved out of dark, dignified wood. In this pub on Adenauerplatz in Charlottenburg, which has remained unchanged since 1935, Berlin celebrities such as Hildegard Knef and Harald Juhnke have enjoyed their "cultivated" pint. In addition to 50 open wines, the cellar holds 800 bottled wine items, from "Kneipwein" - the name for uncomplicated everyday wines in Berlin - to rarities. The focus is on German, especially Palatinate wines "with great vintage depth and a wide range". Innkeeper and sommelier Vincenzo Berényi pairs his vinophile passion with down-to-earth German cuisine, which chef Sebastian Schmidt interprets in a casual and new way. The protagonists of the entire Berlin wine and gastronomy scene meet here for a regulars' table.

Wine Generation X

Berlin's new "wine places" are - just like the old ones - temporary homes, after-work petrol stations or unagitated, urban cosy-casual fine-dining pleasure spots in secluded backyards, former pharmacies, a harbour marina on the Spree bend or converted industrial buildings. The hippest wine hosts are around 30, full of verve and also like to be counter-current swimmers. They serve an eclectic playing field of grunge rock versus classical music, honouring and desocking traditions. Without incapacitating the guest, they meet him at eye level - authentically, empathetically and unpretentiously.

What they have in common is the high product quality, the commitment to sustainability and the close, personal, but also critical contact with their winemakers from the "new generation". These restaurateurs do not see wine dogmatically as a menu accompaniment, but also as a main player. They are willing to experiment and sometimes have exclusive signatures bottled by trendy young winemakers. And: They are in love with their wines - highly emotional they also master the encyclopaedic knowledge about their plants from the berry to the root. So natural, orange and unusual sparkling wines also get their stage.

Berlin drinks white

Can you sum up the taste of this big city with four million inhabitants in one sentence? Here's an attempt: Berlin likes it white and loves German and Austrian wines as well as good French and Italian in the glass. Berlin's self-appointed ambassador of German-speaking growths, wine lobbyist Serhat Aktas, pours Gutzler's Westhofener Steingrube Riesling 2021, filled for him, to accompany the herb oyster crème brûlée with apple red bull and brioche in a Mediterranean-style backyard in Schöneberg. For the artichoke cream soup with tom kha pumpkin seeds, black walnut and fennel, he recommends the Godramsteiner Chardonnay Kalkgestein 2017 by Münchberg.

In the "Bar & Weinwirtschaft Freundschaft" near the busy Friedrichstraße at the former "Nobelhart & Schmutzig" sommelier Johannes "Schelli" Schellhorn and Willi Schlögl, ex-operator of the iconic "Cordobar", the Gemischte Satz Satell 2021 by Jutta Ambrositsch meets Jausenbrot with Liptauer as well as leg ham from the Viennese butcher Thum. Schelli's favourite wine is a Sylvaner from old vines by Tement from Styria, bottled exclusively for "Freundschaft". It goes into the glass with the generously buttered spinach dumpling with tartan cheese. The unfiltered, barely sulphured Riesling Gelber Sandstein 2020 from Scheuermann accompanies the finely soured Lungau organic veal and liver cheese ceviche.

Berlin drinks colourfully

"I like wines with thought-provoking lengths and structures that are more mouth than nose, not just there for a moment and quickly gone again," Willi Schlögl lectures in his equally casual and wine-all-knowing manner. Named Sommelier of the Year 2022 for the second time by the gastronomic trade magazine Rolling Pin, Schlögl professes his "new Austrian identity" with his favourite wine: the Blaufränkisch Reihburg 2018 from Wachter-Wiesler, which really comes into its own with the house and farmhouse goulash.

At the city-famous casual fine-wining sommelier Mathias Brandweiner's Rummelsburger "Hafenküche" in Treptow-Friedrichshain, the Haardter Spätburgunder 2020 by Andres accompanies the butter-tender filet of Holstein heifer. The baked apple with speculoos ice cream and vanilla sauce is served with Riesling Kabinett vom roten Schiefer 2020 from Clemens Busch - "really just for sprinkling on top", recommends Brandweiner.

Ancestral rock with a winery

The "Rotisserie Weingrün" is located directly on the Spree Canal in Berlin-Mitte, between Spittelmarkt and Nikolaiviertel, not far from the new Berlin Palace (Humboldt Forum). For the triad "location-grillfood-wine", the Berlin veteran restaurateur Herbert Beltle bought a vineyard in the Palatinate in 2005, where he and cellarmaster Wolfgang Grün produced his "Horcher wines" for many years. The name comes from a Berlin cult restaurant of the 1920s. It complemented the BBQ menu with cult classics like Paderborn broiler (chicken) and crusty braised belly of Havelland apple pork with hops-malt sauce. Beltle sold the estate in April 2022, and he still has 7,000 bottles in stock until about spring 2023. In the high wine rack, alongside new additions from "classic Europe", there are still the last bottles of his Horcher site wines: Riesling and Chardonnay from 2019. In the meantime, the "new" wines (80 positions) are already on the wine list on the iPad that displays the menu here: Reds from Priorat, rosé from France and Styrian Sauvignon Blanc.

Berlin sparkles

"Wine lobbyist" Serhat Aktas currently offers around 70 German vintners' sparkling wines. Sparkling wine is one of his "rebellious" breaks, where, for example, he serves Buhl's Rosé Brut 2019 in the middle of the menu with the beetroot course and white chocolate. At the end of 2023, he plans to host Berlin's first sparkling wine festival. Mathias Brandweiner would even prefer to drink only sparkling wine with his meal: "The bubbles cleanse the mouth and keep things light," he reveals, as he slides the Pet Nat by Schuh into his glass.

And at "Weinbau Berlin", Giacomo Mannucci serves delicious Tuscan specialities such as sage pesto di Chianti, arista in porchetta (stuffed herb roll roast) and bistecca panzanese from the cult Italian macelleria Dario Cecchini in the pleasantly bourgeois Acacia neighbourhood in Schöneberg. To start, the Quadra Franciacorta Rosé 2017 foams in the glass. Here you experience wine culture with 100 positions from Italy (60 percent) as well as France, Spain and Greece. They are stored in the stylised wine cellar against the wall on lattice shelves with an industrial look. For Mannucci, after wines from Sardinia or Emilia-Romagna, the Moselle and Palatinate come next in the emotional-taste ranking. Many of his purist Italians come from very small wineries, which he pours exclusively. Most of his wines are produced biodynamically - but please no, as Mannucci says, "trübi-funky" natural wines! In Berlin, life concept, space, wine and food belong inseparably together.

The best sites in Berlin's host terroir Anke Sademann's top tips for a great wine time in Berlin.

Photos: © Anke Sademann