Adventures at Marche Bacchus

What does a beautiful spring Vegas night have to do with a nice chilled Riesling? EVERYTHING.

Most who live in Las Vegas know of Marche Bacchus. If not you should. For those of you new to Vegas (like myself), or just visiting, this place is a must for all food & Wine people alike.

I met a few friends here at Marche Bacchus, a wonderful French Bistro with an interesting twist. They have a walk-a-bout wine list. This cool spot is split into two parts, one the restaurant and bistro, the other a wine retail shop. You walk around rows of wooded wine crates and search out the fun for the evening.

Marche Bacchus Walking-a-bout Wine List

I always say get there a few minutes prior to your reservation and hunt out your first liquid adventure for the evening. Another exciting positive note about this wine list is that they are priced for retail sale. If you want to enjoy them for lunch or dinner, all you do is add $10,- to the price. This way, one can find some wonderful wines, at a non-restaurant price.

Marche offers a great selection of white from Germany, France, California and around the world. German wines from Pfeffingen, Künstler, Frity Haag, Schloß Schönborn, Mönchhof and many more.

I strategically found myself at Marche Bacchus 15 minutes prior to my reservation. I took this opportunity to choose myself a nice riesling kabinett to start the evening off right. Now normally when searching for a kabinett you are given only the sweeter options.

Marche currently has a 2006 Weingut Künstler Hocheimer Hölle Kabinett trocken (dry). With a darker gold color this wine come out with an amazing nose. With aromas honey dipped fig, quince and a beautiful hint of petrol, one would almost think their about to have a sweet wine. The palate is dry, but full of life green apple and dried peaches and apricots. The finish holds strong with a well balanced acidity. This wine is amazing.

2006 Künstler Hocheimer Hölle Kabinett dry

Wine maker of Weingut Künstler is currently Gunter Künstler. Their family tradition of wine making started in 1648 near Wien (Vienna). After being deported to Germany after the second world war, they settled in the Rheingau. Their winery was founded in Hochheim am Main in 1965, by Gunters father, Franz.
 Künstler makes refined and elegant wines made both in fruitier and dryer styles. The dryer styles are where these wines show their pedigree. With amazing "Erste Lagern" (Grand Cru Vineyards) such as Hochheimer Hölle, Kirchenstück, Kostheimer Weiß Erd and Domdechaney. The Erstes Gewächs (Dry Wine of highest Quality from Grand Cru Vineyards) wines are breath taking.


There is a slight complication when it comes to Erste Lage (made from Grand Cru Vineyard), Erstes Gewächs (Rheingau Grand Cru dry wine) and Großes Gewächs (All of Germany other than Rheingau Grand Cru dry wine). To see wine of this quality one must look for the Erste Lage symbol.

Symbol for a Großes Gewächs (GG) or Erstes Gewächs (EG) wine.
Symbol also used on label to mark a wine from a Erste Lage (EL)

Hochheim am Main is a beautiful town located in the middle of vineyards directly on the river Main. (German lesson: anytime a city or town name has "am Main", it means "on the Main").




Weingut Künstler Tasting in Hochheim am Main

Twice a year Gunter holds tastings of his current wine available in his Grand Tasting room. He invites a wine maker, most notably Hans Wirsching, to taste their wines out as well. This is open to the public and free of charge. An event one must go to if you are in town for these days.

Between Hochheim am Main and Eltville am Rhein is a small village, with a large wine reputation, named Kiedrich. Kiedrich boasts my favorite Restaurant in this portion of the Rheingau, Weinschänke Schloss Groensteyn, but we will speak of that another day.





Armin Huth of Weingut Hans Wirsching at Künstler Tasting in Hochheim



The Wines of Hans Wirsching, from the Franken region, will be gone into detail when we look into a day of wine tasting in Franken. Again, at a later date.

 

I seem to have side tracked (this time not due to A.D.H.D.) from our dinner at Marche Bacchus.

These evening was amazing. About 80 degrees after the sun had gone down. Bottle of kabinett now empty, we wandered inside to search for some other nice treats. Keeping things low key we bought a tasty Gigondas from E. Guigal. And since we were already on the path of big fruit reds, our third wine was The Prisoner, from Orin Swift Cellars.

With wine gone and food equally enjoyed, our night came to an end. Marche Bacchus is the place for off strip patio seating. Overlooking a beautiful man made lake surrounded by beautiful home, with nightly Guitar music. This is a must see for all who want to wine and dine Las Vegas the right way, without having to be a "High Roller".

Marche Bacchus
www.MarcheBacchus.com
Reservations: 702-804-8008

The German German-Wine Guy wishes you happy eating and drinking.

Until next time...

Lobster Ravioli in Wanton Jacket, soon to be removed from the menu, but damn tasty.

Going Deutsch

A German wine blog by Christian Adams, a.k.a. The German German Wine Guy.

Thank you for randomly stumbling upon my blog! I hope that in the future you will enjoy the experiences I have in both wine and food.

I work for the top fine German-wine import company in the U.S., Rudi Wiest Selections.

From my home base in Las Vegas, I have access to a playground of wine and dining experiences. As a German who grew up in California, I represent some of the finest German wines available in the nation. As I experience these wines along with the top West Coast sommeliers and wine buyers, so will you.

Prior to my position with Rudi Wiest, I conducted in-depth research and tastings of German wineries. My family hails from Aschaffenburg in Bayern (Bavaria) and in the northwestern-most portion of the Franken (Franconian) wine region. This is home to the driest of dry wines. Grape varietals such as silvaner, Müller-Thurgau, pinot noir and riesling are crafted wonderfully here. At age 19, I enjoyed my first fruit-forward wine, but for the three years prior (remember, Germans can imbibe legally at age 16…) I was drinking much drier wines. Though I do enjoy the sweeter kabinett, spätlese and auslese styles, I can never ignore the food-friendly and downright wonderful dry wines of Germany.

For the past two years I lived in Germany, working in restaurants and then managing the restaurant and banquets department of Schlossweinstuben, the dining establishment inside the castle Schloss Johannisburg (not to be confused with the Rheingau Johannisberg) in the town of Aschaffenburg. Located directly on the river Main, Schloss Johannisburg offered the most scenic and beautiful terraces in all of Aschaffenburg.

Schloss Johannisburg Aschaffenburg

(Interestingly enough, this was the castle in which my parents were married.)

Wilfried and Margaret Adams Wedding

While working at Schlossweinstuben, I often used my one day off each week to travel throughout Franken’s sub-regions, including Klingenberg, Bürgstadt, Ipöfen, Volkach and Escherndorf to visit with winemakers whom some of their products are not imported in the U.S. (Unfortunately, Franken has not received the recognition for its wines that it deserves. The U.S.’s taste in German wines for the past 50 years has been primarily for the sweeter wines.). Wineries such as Hans Wirsching, Fürst, Fürst von Löwenstein, Horst Sauer, Brennfleck, Max Müller I, Staatliche Hofkeller Würzburg, Zenthof-Luckert, Weingut Stich „im Löwen“, Weinbau Hofmann-Herkert and many many more.


  I also spent a lot of time in the Rheingau, Pfalz, Rheinhessen and the Mosel. To know these regions is to experience their surroundings and history, and to see what they use to create pieces of drinkable art.


I participated in the late-season harvest of the Satzenberg Vineyard in Taubertal, which used to be known as Tauber-Franken, but is officially Baden. The owner and winemaker, Norbert Spielmann of Weingut Alter Grafschaft, purchased the vineyard from Fürst von Löwenstein, a very prominent winery in Franken. On a foggy morning in October we harvested weissburgunder (pinot blanc) and riesling. With its red sandstone terraces and steep hills, it was quite challenging but very fun.

Norbert Spielmann on his Satzenberg Vineyard in Taubertal

My German experiences aside, my passion and love for wine started in California. I grew up mostly on the Monterey Peninsula. I went the route of Hotel Management, whilst some of my best friends went into wine making, Wine Sales and to be Sommeliers. For us, house parties at age 21 involved tones of wine, blind tastings and food. Seems fun enough. I had always enjoyed wine, but never became a complete nut until this time in my life. Something about learning how the wine was made. The feel that it took the right climate, soil, heart and skill to make this wine. When opening an aged wine you are releasing molecules from that vintage. You are experiencing time travel in a sense.


In the future, I will post my tasting experiences and pictures of German wineries. Along with this, I will post many interesting dining experiences encountered in Las Vegas and through my travels. Although my focus will be German wines, I am still just a wine nut at heart, and will report on all.


I look forward to being your German German Wine Guy! Have fun—I know I will!—and I look forward to showing you more about where I come from and what we all love to drink.