Hearty fare for a fresh taste Home of riesling and spätburgunder (pinot noir) Invention of the Rüdesheim speciality coffee

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1 Press information Rüdesheim cuisine Fresh regional produce and excellent wine Hearty fare for a fresh taste Home of riesling and spätburgunder (pinot noir) Invention of the Rüdesheim speciality coffee Hungry in Rüdesheim? Not a chance. This small town with just under ten thousand inhabitants at the gateway to the UNESCO World Heritage Middle Rhine Valley has more than 50 wine bars and restaurants in its old quarter, and in the districts of Assmannshausen, Aulhausen, Presberg and Eibingen. All visitors have to do is decide what they would like to tuck into after working up an appetite with a walking tour, a stroll through the old quarter or a trip by cable car. With everything from light snacks to full three-course meals, from reasonably priced to refined, and from historical to contemporary the restaurants in Rüdesheim have something to suit every budget and taste. So, stop off at one of the cosy restaurants, take a seat in the delightful surroundings of a romantic vineyard or quaint wine cellar, and see what good things the menu has to offer. Award-winning restaurants Visitors will soon discover that hearty, regional fare is the clear favourite here. Specialities such as Rhenish sauerbraten (marinated braised beef), wild boar sausages, spundekäs (well-seasoned cream cheese) and the classic dessert apple strudel with vanilla ice cream are guaranteed to get your mouth watering. Those who love fish will discover a range of tasty dishes made from trout, either freshly caught in the nearby Wisper river or smoked. The surrounding forests are a great source of ingredients for delicious game specialities. Fresh, regional produce is extremely popular, especially from known suppliers who place great emphasis on the high quality of their products. This certainly works well for Rüdesheim's restaurants, as

2 Page 2 demonstrated by the numerous Hessen Restaurant Awards and rave reviews in gourmet magazines. Local specialities and medieval herbs Naturally, the restaurant menus also feature international dishes from the Mediterranean and Asia, which are particularly popular with foreign visitors. However, the restaurateurs of Rüdesheim are clearly focused on the hearty home-cooked meals that they remember from their childhood. Nevertheless, they are not averse to giving a new twist to old favourites, e.g. 'Hessian tapas' or 'Handkäs carpaccio'. Hildegard von Bingen, who is not only honoured in her home town on the opposite side of the Rhine but also in Rüdesheim, was a great advocate of simple and healthy natural cuisine. For her dishes, she used ingredients and herbs that she knew were good for people and had healing properties, such as blood-purifying nutmeg, fennel for good digestion, spelt for circulatory disorders and the multi-talented thyme, which is calming, diuretic, reduces fever and also helps to improve fat tolerance. Based on this knowledge, renowned 'Hildegard' hosts offer dishes made in accordance with the teachings of St Hildegard, as enjoyed by the nuns at the Abbey of St Hildegard in the district of Eibingen. Sought-after fine wines A good meal should always be accompanied by a suitably good wine and, in the wine-growing town of Rüdesheim, this is usually a nice glass of riesling or spätburgunder. Starting just behind the houses in the old quarter, the vast vineyards stretch all the way up to the Germania monument and down to the Rhine, forming a semi-circle around the town. Nestled between Germany's most famous river and its vineyards, Rüdesheim is one of the pearls of the Rheingau, a small wine region covering an area of 3,107 hectares that has been a big name since the end of the

3 Page 3 19th century. Even back then, people were prepared to pay large sums of money for fine vintages produced in the region. Today, Rheingau wines still rank highly with wine connoisseurs throughout the world for their elegance and finesse. A view of the Rhine Exquisite Rüdesheim wine can still be enjoyed in some of the town's bars and you can easily pay out a thousand euros for a good vintage. But it is usually also available for the standard price, which is kept moderately low by restaurants and bars in Rüdesheim. The white wine of choice on most wine lists here is riesling (pinot blanc, pinot gris and silvaner are also offered). When it comes to red wine, it's usually the spätburgunder grown on the steep slopes of the Höllenberg in the district of Assmannshausen. Visitors from all over the world enjoy sampling a glass or two of wine in the place where it was made: in restaurants, wine bars, wine cellars or seasonal wine rooms run by the wineries (only open for two months of the year). In Assmannshausen, a district known for its red wines, many of the restaurants have terraces offering uninterrupted views of the Rhine, Rheinstein Castle and the numerous passing boats. An ideal location The grapes flourish here because everything is just right: the south-facing topography, the protective Taunus hills with their sprawling forests in the north, mineral-rich soils and the broad flowing Rhine, which mitigates against fluctuating temperatures, all help to create the perfect conditions for the riesling grapes to grow and mature. This is something that Charlemagne discovered more than a thousand years ago when he looked out from his favourite palace in Ingelheim, now in Rheinhessen, and saw that the ice melted earlier in the spring on the other side of

4 Page 4 the Rhine. The first attempts by the Romans at viticulture were successfully continued by monks around 900 years ago. Today, there are around 100 wineries keeping these winegrowing traditions alive in Rüdesheim. However, there are only eleven businesses growing grapes in an area of at least five hectares who make their living solely from wine. The vast majority of Rüdesheim's vintners do something else as a career and spend their evenings and weekends making wine. Nevertheless, they do it with great skill; most of them have had excellent training at a German college of viticulture or at a vineyard. Wine lovers looking to add to their collection at home will find plenty of opportunity to sample the wines at a number of vintners' taverns and wine cellars, as well as at three wine shops. Four wineries have even set up wine-tasting stands on the market square and next to the Hafenpark. These are open from the afternoon onwards from spring to late autumn. Visitors can also discover and deepen their love of Rüdesheim wine at many wine-related events and at the Christmas market. A genuine vineyard-made glühwein made from local wine is certainly much tastier than anything you'll find in the big city. Atmospheric Drosselgasse Wine is also enjoyed in abundance by the glass in the Drosselgasse, Rüdesheim's most famous lane, known the world over for its Rhineland cheer. More than three million visitors come to the town every year, and virtually all of them are likely to visit this romantic narrow street. At just 144 metres long and only three metres wide at its narrowest point, the lane does get very crowded at times. But that's all part of the Rüdesheim experience. Strolling along at a leisurely pace allows you ample opportunity to admire the richly decorative façades of the historical half-timbered buildings to your left and right and to browse the goods being sold by the small

5 Page 5 souvenir shops. There's certainly no shortage of places to eat and drink along the way. With live music from midday onwards, delicious food and plenty of local wine, the cosy bars offer a lively atmosphere, day or night. The Drosselgasse (thrush lane) is actually named after the birds that lived in the area, along with a number of other feathered songsters, before people settled here. The innovative spirit of Asbach Another of the town's ambassadors is the spirit manufacturer Asbach. Its internationally acclaimed brandy with the advertising slogan 'Asbach - the spirit of wine' can be found in many German drinks cabinets and is exported to all corners of the globe. The company really understands its trade, but it also comes up with some creative sales ideas. In the Roaring Twenties, when it was socially unacceptable for ladies to drink in public, Hugo Asbach invented the brandy-filled chocolate praline this could be freely enjoyed by ladies without any breach of etiquette. Another innovation came in the 1950s from TV chef Hans Karl Adam who created the Rüdesheim speciality coffee for Asbach. To the delight of visitors, this liqueur coffee is traditionally served in a white porcelain mug with red decoration and is prepared at the table in front of their eyes. They can watch as the small flames dance on top of the brandy before the coffee is poured in and a dollop of delicious cream is piled on top. Eat, drink and enjoy Discovering Rüdesheim is all about sampling the local cuisine in the town centre between Drosselgasse, Oberstrasse and Marktstrasse, as well as in the romantic side streets and in the red wine district of Assmannshausen, which can be reached by cable car, chair lift or boat if you don't fancy walking there through the vineyards. Here too, visitors can enjoy a typically regional culinary experience, warm hospitality

6 Page 6 and, above all, a glass or two of fine wine. It's well worth staying a while too at one of 70 hotels, inns, holiday apartments and guesthouses renowned for their impeccable hospitality and service. Press contact: Rolf Wölfert Rüdesheim Tourist AG, Rheinstrasse 29a, Rüdesheim am Rhein, Germany Tel.: +49 (0) , Fax: +49 (0) , rolf.woelfert@ruedesheim.de