green juice
Looking for an alternative to lemon or vinegar as an acidic ingredient when wine is going to be served? An excellent option is Verjus, that is (literally) green juice from unripely harvested grapes. Compared to vinegar the acid is milder and 'rounder', the flavour is fruity and more complex than that of lemons. Being common in the middle ages it gradually fell into oblivion and gains increasing popularity in the culinary scene only recently. We were curious and tested Austrian Verjus today:
Kamptal Verjus, a winemaker's (Barbara Öhlzelt, aka the 'Weinberggeiss'!) varietal green juice from Veltliner grapes (2008). You get the taste of sour grapes, of course, but with other nice fruity flavours (green pears, citric fruits), it's crisp and quite homogeneous. It did very well as ingredient to salad dressing, with fish (zander), and as a drink (spritzer, with elder syrup...). It's a very versatile and inspiring discovery - and we haven't even tried it with wine yet.
Kamptal Verjus , Weingut Barbara Öhlzelt (www.weinberggeiss.at), discovered at Jaques Weindepot in Munich 4€ (0.5l).