Federweiss und Zwiebelnkuchen

This is the time of year in the Rhine Valley when the traditional foods are Federweiss and Zwiebelnkuchen.

Federweiss is the wine from the first press of the grapes. It is extremely sweet, and as you can see from the picture, rather cloudy, almost like apple cider. We thought it was pretty good. I'm usually not a fan of white wine, but this wasn't bad at all.

The traditional food with Federweiss is Zwiebelnkuchen (onion cake). It's actually a lot like very oniony quiche, but with a slightly thicker crust. Zwiebelnkuchen was not as much of a hit as the Federweiss - but we were glad to try it nonetheless.

Interesting thing about the Federweiss is that it is sold open - no cork. The top of the bottle has a wrapper, but the wrapper has holes in it to allow the wine to continue to ferment. So, when unsuspecting visitors to Germany turn over a bottle to look for the price - the wine comes dripping out. "Well, I guess I'll take this one".