Silvaner: a Bavarian gem
Head Sommelier and Manager of Lutyens Restaurant
German wine is in the middle of a golden age. But it’s easy to forget that despite the excellence and intensity of German Riesling, it’s not the only game in town.
Today we’re taking a look at the Silvaner of Franken. It’s a grape variety you find in Germany, France (spelt Sylvaner), Austria and the North of Italy and it generally makes pleasant but unexceptional wines. But just a little over an hour south-east of Frankfurt in Northern Bavaria lies Franken (Franconia in English) is the home of Silvaner.
The capital of Franken, Würzburg, is a baroque gem, overlooked by the dramatically steep vines of the Würzburger Stein, one of the most famous Franconian vineyards.
The underlying geology is easy to understand, red sandstone in the west giving way to marine limestone and then marl/gypsum in the east. The changes are evident in the wine with floral notes leading to distinctive herbaceous flavours in such famous vineyards as Iphöfer Kronsberg or Iphöfer Julius Echter-berg.
The taste of Silvaner is like an English summer, cool and green. Cucumber, green melon, pear, apricot, flowers (honeysuckle, roses) and, in the more herbaceous examples, mint or shiso. There is often a distinctive mineral note as well. In some ways it resembles sake.
In Franken they swear by Silvaner with the local white asparagus and it works equally well with the English green variety. The nearby river Main suggests another match in fresh water fish. Silvaner has relatively low natural acidity (particularly compared to Riesling) so I would avoid cooking methods that introduce a lot of fat; baked, poached or steamed fish would be the order of the day. Tuck some slices of lime and fennel into a trout and bake it in tin foil with a splash of wine and some chilli flakes, for example.
It’s an easy wine to recognise as the traditional Franconian Bocksbeutel is the same shape as a Matteus Rosé bottle, but don’t let that put you off: Silvaner is one of Germany’s hidden gems.
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