Saarbrücken – Which Wine Goes With Which Dish?

A good wine, carefully chosen, doesn't just complement culinary enjoyment in this city in the south-west of Germany. The key requirement, of course, is that the food and wine actually go together.

To help you make the right choice, we'd like to share a few tips. We've structured these around the typical menu sequence, and of course we'd also recommend taking your time with both food and wine so you can enjoy them properly.

Aperitif recommendations for discerning diners in Saarbrücken

An aperitif is usually a wine-based drink served before a meal. It awakens the palate and prepares it for the dishes to come. It also fills the waiting time and plays an important social role. The wine should be relatively dry and fruity, so it doesn't overpower the flavours of the dishes to follow.

Champagne makes an excellent aperitif, though it can be quite pricey. Sparkling wines from European wine-growing regions or Prosecco are equally popular choices. Sherry or a light rosé from southern France or Spain are also well worth considering.

Wines suited to starters

Whether you're looking at national or international cuisine, characteristic and typical starters vary enormously.

When things lean towards the Mediterranean, as with our Italian and Greek friends, fish or seafood are often served. A dry white wine pairs beautifully with these — a Sauvignon Blanc or a Riesling works particularly well.

Also characteristic of Italian menus are starters like Caprese or Bruschetta, where tomatoes take centre stage.

These go well with Italian red wines such as a Barbaresco, as well as low-acid white wines from the Burgundy family, such as Chardonnay or Pinot Gris. You'll find recommendations for Italian restaurants in Saarbrücken, Saarland, here.

Greek cuisine, meanwhile, is typified by dishes like Greek salad, where — as with all salads — choosing a well-balanced wine isn't always straightforward. A rosé pairs nicely with such a salad. Light, dry white wines also work well, such as a Pinot Blanc or a Silvaner. You'll find ideas for Greek restaurants in Saarbrücken, Saarland, here.

Enjoying wine in Saarbrücken

There's no exact formula for which wine goes with which soup in this city on the Saar. The range of soups is simply too vast, so at most you can distinguish between clear and thickened soups. While fish soup, chicken soup or beef consommé are classic examples of clear soups, pea, bean or potato soup represent the thickened variety. Since thickened soups tend to be more filling, we'll cover the relevant wine recommendations in more detail under main courses.

Clear soups, by contrast, tend to whet the appetite. Chicken soup is usually served with a Chardonnay, which best brings out the delicate meat flavours of poultry. Other Burgundy wines, such as Pinot Gris or Pinot Blanc, also pair perfectly. Bouillon or beef consommé also call for a fine white wine.

The choice undoubtedly also depends on what's in the soup: with plenty of noodles, a Riesling works wonderfully, while a Silvaner does a great job alongside semolina dumplings in broth. With fish soup, there are quite a few options for pairing a suitable wine: a Sauvignon Blanc will cut just as fine a figure as a Riesling or a Pinot Gris. If the wine lover is dealing with a lighter vegetable soup, such as an Italian minestrone, a modern red wine or a good Chardonnay can also be recommended as an accompaniment.

Choosing an off-dry wine makes sense whenever cheese is involved, as is often the case with onion soup. After the first course, anticipation builds for the main course and its accompanying wines.

Wine recommendations for meat dishes

The main course of an extensive menu is often a meat dish, which naturally deserves the right accompaniment. Wine bars such as Weine Balthasar are the classic go-to restaurants for wine-and-meat pairings. Wine recommendations for meat mainly depend on two factors:

Firstly, the animal the meat comes from plays a major role, and secondly, how it's prepared. This can range from the everyday — pork, beef or poultry — to the exotic, such as ostrich or crocodile. Grilling, roasting, braising, poaching — depending on the method, different aromas are emphasised or released, and the right wine needs to complement these.

If the meat is pork, you'll be on safe ground with a white wine, though heavier preparations can certainly call for a dry red. Quickly fried dishes like Kassler, fillet or chops go well with aromatic, fruity white wines. If you're after something more traditional, a hearty roast pork is often served with a red wine, such as a Pinot Noir.

A Riesling pairs very well with pork schnitzel, while a Grüner Veltliner is an excellent match for its veal cousin, Wiener Schnitzel. Chops, which are fairly undemanding to prepare, also pair excellently with a down-to-earth Müller-Thurgau. Pork fillet or pork medallions again call for Burgundy wines: a good Chardonnay, or a dry or off-dry Pinot Gris, are safe bets here.

Tender veal — whether it's the Italian classic Vitello Tonnato, veal strips, or Wiener Schnitzel — is best accompanied by fruity white wines. A Sauvignon Blanc, a Riesling or a Chardonnay will always do the job nicely.

But red wine has its place with veal too, especially when the meat is roasted or braised. A Shiraz or a Merlot works well here, for example.

Saarbrücken: wines for beef

Beef deserves particular attention, being a prized cut of meat that many people are happy to pay a little extra for. That makes it well worth investing some knowledge into which wine to serve with a good beef steak. For the finest cut, beef fillet, only the best wine will do — and in this case, that's a full-bodied red.

Only red grape varieties, such as a Cabernet Sauvignon, do justice to the wonderful roasted aromas of a perfectly cooked beef fillet. The same goes for other hearty cuts like rump steak or rib eye — a Chianti or a Merlot complement these beautifully. With a rustic T-bone or Tomahawk steak, a Shiraz or a Blaufränkisch comes into its own. You'll find recommendations for restaurants serving great steaks in Saarbrücken, Saarland, here.

Goulash, the Hungarian national dish, is usually enjoyed with a robust red wine such as Cabernet Sauvignon or Merlot. With lamb, it also depends on the method of preparation. Grilled or pan-fried lamb pairs well with a lighter red, whose weight can vary depending on how strong the lamb's natural flavour is.

Lamb, poultry and pork with wines from Saarbrücken

Game is the classic domain of red wine. A Pinot Noir is a good choice here, though a Sankt Laurent or a Blaufränkisch also pairs beautifully with venison, for example. Mature, full-bodied reds are also an excellent choice with wild duck, hare or venison.

Finer cuts of wild boar also pair well with white wines such as a Gewürztraminer or a Riesling. A late-harvest Pinot Gris or Pinot Blanc also works nicely. White poultry meat is best enjoyed with light white wines such as Pinot Gris. Rosé wines are also a great match, particularly when poultry dishes are served cold.

For more intense flavours, such as chicken curry or grilled chicken breast, dry and fruity white wines like a Sauvignon Blanc are recommended. But red wine can also work well with poultry: turkey or roast chicken pairs nicely with Pinot Noir, while goose and duck suit a light to medium-bodied red such as Blaufränkisch.

Pheasant or partridge can be enjoyed with a good Burgundy or Bordeaux wine, while quail is often served with a Pinot Gris from the Pfalz. A chicken fricassee is beautifully rounded off by a fruity, off-dry Riesling and its characteristic aromas.

With ostrich fillet, you could either take a chance with a Shiraz or opt for a classic Bordeaux wine. In any case, the wine shouldn't be too fruity but should still have plenty of body.

The right Saarland wines for seafood or fish

Meat isn't the only thing that can crown an extended meal — the main course can just as easily be built around fish or seafood dishes. Advice that once seemed set in stone in fish restaurants, such as the venue with the intriguing name Die Konkrete Utopie, was that only white wine should be served with fish. While this rule of thumb still applies quite often, it certainly doesn't hold true for every type of fish.

There's no question that fish is more delicate and tender than meat, which makes white wine its perfect companion — though salmon or tuna steaks can also work with a light red, such as a subtle Merlot or a fine Portugieser. You can't go far wrong with white wine when it comes to seafood either. If it's steamed or poached, delicate wines with subtle aromas tend to work best: fruity and dry, like a Riesling, though a Champagne rounds off the enjoyment of mussels and oysters perfectly too.

When seafood comes from the grill, the frying pan or the barbecue, its spicy, roasted aromas call for a wine with more character and strength. Prawns also pair well with a fruity Weißherbst, a rosé, or a Prosecco.

Saarbrücken wine meets international cuisine

With Italian pasta in this city in the Saar region in the south-west of Germany, you should choose red or white wine depending on the sauce. If meat plays a role, a full-bodied red usually harmonises best. If the pasta dish is made with vegetables or fish instead, it's better to reach for a white.

With tomato sauce, you can happily choose a red such as a Bardolino or Valpolicella. For Bolognese and similar beef-based sauces, you can't go wrong with a Chianti Classico. There's no hard and fast rule for rice dishes either, so both white and red wines can generally be served.

If the dish contains fish or meat, a red wine is usually the better choice. For dishes without any particular standout ingredients, or with vegetables, a white wine is a good option.

Asian dishes and ingredients are characterised by their heat and bold flavours — you'll find restaurant tips for this here. The wine needs to be able to hold its own against these, and a dry Riesling or Pinot Blanc from German wine-growing regions works best. Fruity wines from Italy or Spain also make good companions for Asian dishes.

Culinary trends and the wines that suit them

Sushi, which is growing ever more popular in Saarbrücken with its roughly 180,000 residents, pairs well with quite a range of grape varieties. In restaurants such as Osaka Sushi & more, the white wines Silvaner and Pinot Gris come particularly recommended. Of course, sake, Japanese rice wine, is also an excellent match.

Much like Asian cuisine, Turkish food also tends to be quite spicy. A typical Turkish dish is Kuzu Tandir, a lamb dish served with a yoghurt-cucumber salad and flatbread. You'll find recommendations for Turkish restaurants in Saarbrücken, Saarland, here. A Riesling pairs excellently with this dish — it's not too heavy and has enough acidity to balance out the fattiness of the lamb.

Thickened soups can also make a fine main course. An exotic touch like Grüner Veltliner, for instance, pairs well with mushroom soup. Soups made with pulses are best matched with a Gewürztraminer or a Scheurebe. For the asparagus soup so beloved by gourmets, a Silvaner or a Sauvignon Blanc is often the wine of choice.

Pinot Blanc, on the other hand, wonderfully enhances potato and pumpkin soups. Vegetarian dishes have also been on trend for years now. When looking for the right wine, the main thing to consider is the ingredients that make up the particular vegetarian dish. Green vegetables, for example, pair well with white grape varieties such as Scheurebe, Sauvignon Blanc or Silvaner.

When mushrooms take centre stage, choosing the right grape variety can be tricky, as it varies depending on how they’re prepared. With pan-fried mushrooms, you can comfortably reach for a subtle Weissburgunder, whereas if they’re prepared with cream, it’s better to opt for a richer wine, ideally from the Burgundy family. With pasta, potatoes or grains, Burgundy varieties also do well: Chardonnay, Grauburgunder, Weissburgunder or Auxerrois are all good matches, but a Riesling or a Grüner Veltliner will also serve you well. If the vegetarian dish consists of pulses and stews, Riesling is likewise a good choice. Pairing wine with dairy products is tricky – the wine you choose should bring little character of its own and be fairly neutral.

Wine with dessert – combinations for Saarbrücken

Classic dessert pairings include noble sweet white wines such as Eiswein, Beerenauslese or Trockenbeerenauslese.

Upmarket restaurants usually have a selection on the menu. Thanks to their high sugar content, these wines can stand up to rich desserts.

For chocolate lovers, a wine with pronounced acidity, such as an aged port, is recommended. If fruit is served for dessert, even a dry wine such as a Riesling Spätlese works well. Champagne also makes a fitting accompaniment to desserts, depending on the occasion.

Cheese rounds off the meal nicely and often appears as dessert in the form of a colourful cheese board. So here are a few final tips on cheese and wine: while white wine generally goes well with mozzarella, red wine tends to be the choice for matured cheese.

Red wine and blue cheese, for example, are a popular combination. But even with matured cheeses, it doesn’t always have to be red wine, since cheese itself has such a dominant flavour that it usually also pairs well with a dry or sweet white wine. Medium-bodied red wines tend to suit soft cheeses like Camembert or Brie, whereas hard cheese calls for a more robust red. As a general rule of thumb: regional cheese with regional wine.

Wine with food remains a matter of taste

That’s it for now with our tips on well-known and popular food and wine pairings. There’s undoubtedly a lot more that could be written on this subject if you were to consider every conceivable food prepared in every possible way.

Ultimately, though, much of it simply comes down to personal taste. In really good restaurants, you can of course also rely on the advice of a sommelier. Wine experts can sometimes also be found among the waiting staff, who are happy to offer guidance and draw on their professional experience. If you want to cook and enjoy wine at home, you can rely on the experts at the wine shops in Saarbrücken when doing your shopping.