Licensed to Thrill: Germany's 007 Vintage

In the photo: Carina Zeitler talks about her wine. (See menu and more photos below.)


LICENSED TO THRILL: GERMANY'S 007 VINTAGE AT CHAMBAR

“If when you walked into the room, and spied the bottles on the table, you wondered if you had made a mistake and were actually at the Portuguese wine luncheon, don’t worry”, you are in the right place,” said Carina Zeitler reassuringly, as she waved aloft her bottle of 2007 Würtzburger Pfaffenberg Silvaner. “Our bottle has been this shape since the winery began, back in 1334.  Whereas Mateus [the fizzy Portuguese rose, which has become synonymous with a squat, dark glass bottle], came out with theirs a few hundred years later. So in fact, it is they who are copying us.”

Ms Zeilter's winery, Weingut Bürgerspital, is located on the site of an ancient nursing home in Würtzburg (just outside Frankfurt), where at mid-day, patients were give an allowance of two liters of wine and punished if they misbehaved by being made to drink water instead. As Export Director, she was one of three guests of honour at a luncheon event for the Vancouver Playhouse International Wine Festival entitled “Licensed to Thrill: Germany’s 007 Vintage".  And although Zeitler may have been too modestly dressed to be taken for a “Bond Girl”, the event was so named due to a scene in Goldfinger where Bond and the villain sit down to a luncheon of golden Reisling wine, cheese soufflé and curry.

In our case, Bond tunes may have been Thunderballing away on the sound system, but our wines were accompanied by a less monocromatic, three-course luncheon prepared by Chambar restaurant’s Chef Nico Schuerman and his staff. The menu included a pot of extra spicy mussels, as well an unexpected pairing of the off dry white wines with a rich lamb dish.

Ms. Zeitler, who in her world travels must have sampled hundreds of food combinations with her wines, thought that Chef Nico’s way with the BC mussels was the best match she had ever encountered, and afterwards she poked her head though the kitchen window to enthusiastically tell him so.

But then, who could ever accuse the Germans of being without passion when it comes to Riesling. Nik Weis of St. Urban-Hof took off his shoes and jumped up on a chair to talk about his wines, while Andrea Besslick of the Rhinegau’s Schloss Reinhartshausen took charge to rearrange the wine line up when she felt her wine was being served in wrong position.

Getting back to the Burgerspital Silvaner … beyond the pedigree of the chubby bottle and the excellence of its contents, it had another big plus going for it.  It’s obviously fridge friendly. And anyone who has had an opened tall bottle tip over and leak its contents everywhere knows what we mean.

No doubt Pussy Galore would have loved it too.