About Sue Style

Originally from Yorkshire I've lived and worked in Spain, France, Mexico and Switzerland, now based in southern Alsace. Author of 9 books, the latest about Switzerland's finest farmhouse cheeses. I freelance for anyone who'll buy my stuff (FT Weekend, Decanter, France Mag, Culture Cheese Mag et al) plus I give cooking workshops and lead bespoke vineyard tours in Alsace and Baden (just across the Rhine).

Pique-Nique chez le Vigneron, Whit Weekend

Posted on May 14, 2013 by Sue Style

In many of France’s wine-growing regions, Whit Weekend (Pentecote in French, Pfingsten in German) is the moment when many of the smaller, independent wine growers sweep out courtyards and cellars, dust off trestle tables and benches and throw open the gates to the public. It’s time for the annual Pique-Nique chez le Vigneron. Loads of Alsace estates take part – the full list, including growers in both the Bas-Rhin and the Haut-Rhin, is here.

Pique-Nique chez Sylvie Spielmann, Bergheim

The deal varies from winery to winery but basically they provide tables, seating (under cover too in case of rain – it always rains at Pentecote), vineyard and cellar visits, musical accompaniment (oompapa/jazz/piano accordeon/alphorns), art or pottery exhibits…and the wine. You provide the picnic. Unfold your checked tablecloth on the trestle table and lay out the goodies – and be sure to bring along something yum to share with your table neighbours. The wine growers generally make no charge for this splendid Open House event, but you must call or mail ahead to let them know how many are coming. Note too that some hold their Pique-Nique on Sunday 19 May, others on Monday 20 May, and some on both days. Check the list.

Frédéric Bernhard with family and friends in Katzenthal

It’s always a fun day, a chance to meet the [wine]makers, find out how last year’s harvest went, how the new wine’s coming along, chat to your neighbours, even shake a leg (in the vineyards or on an impromptu dance floor). Some of our favourite wineries are participating, including those listed below. Remember: you must call or mail to make a booking.

Enjoy your pique-nique!

Domaine Schoenheitz, a rising star with vineyards in and around Wihr-au-Val at the entrance to the Vallée de Munster (Sunday 19 May)
Tel. 03 89 71 03 96, cave@vins-schoenheitz.fr

Sylvie Spielmann, lively biodynamic grower just outside Bergheim (Monday 20 May)
Tel. 03 89 73 35 95, sylvie@sylviespielmann.com

Paul Blanck, top estate in walled village of Kientzheim who put on a famous picnic (Monday 20 May)
martine@blanck.com

Domaine Jean-Marc Bernhard, super little estate in Katzenthal run by Frédéric and Caroline Bernhard (Monday 20 May)
Tel. 03 89 27 05 34, vins@jeanmarcbernhard.fr

Clément Klur, another biodynamic estate, also Katzenthal – this year winemaker colleagues from the Jura and Chateauneuf-du-Pape will also be present (Monday 20 May)
Tel. 03 89 80 94 29, info@klur.net

Jean-Philippe & François Becker (and their sister, the irrepressible and multilingual Martine), biodynamic estate in lovely hilltop village of Zellenberg (Monday 20 May)
Tel. 03 89 47 90 16, vinsbecker@aol.com

Paul Kubler, great little winery in Soultzmatt in the beautiful Vallée Noble (Sunday 19 and Monday 20 May)
Tel. 03 89 47 00 75, kubler@lesvins.com

….and many more…

The Trials & Tribulations of Ziereisen Wines

Posted on May 1, 2013 by Sue Style

There’s only one thing wrong with Hanspeter Ziereisen’s wines: there’s just not enough of’em. After another delightful visit to the winery in Efringen-Kirchen (Baden, Germany) this week, we came away in high spirits – Hanspeter and Edeltraut are relaxed and generous hosts and tastings there are always a blast – but with the tiniest tinge of frustration that many of the goodies (well, the ones I like and can afford) are promptly ausverkauft, out of stock, épuisé, GONE…bummer. Must stir my stumps a bit sooner and sign up as soon as I hear the new vintage is in bottle. Or preferably before. Continue reading →

tibits cookbook – now in English

Posted on April 22, 2013 by Sue Style

If you check in here occasionally, you’ll know I have a soft spot for tibits, the upmarket fast-food veggie restaurant with branches in Zurich, Bern, Winterthur and Basel, plus one in London. Probably you also know – maybe you already own – their cookbook tibits at home, up until now published only in German by AT Verlag. Good news: it’s now also out in English. Continue reading →

Bärlauch is Back

Posted on April 16, 2013 by Sue Style

Wild garlic is back in season. It catches me off guard every spring. Just a month ago there was no sign of it. In another month or so it will retreat beneath the ground, not to be seen again till next year. I rejoice at its reappearance, grab my basket, don my boots and set off to harvest the elegantly tapered, fragrant leaves. Continue reading →

Green Saucery

Posted on April 13, 2013 by Sue Style

Must be on account of the endless, unrelenting grey of recent days but I can’t stop making this brilliant green sauce: 100g of green leaves (preferably edible), blanched, blended, creamed and lightly thickened with cornflour – the sauce takes about 9 minutes from start to finish. Serve with pasta, or chicken breasts or the kind of pearly white fish that subsides delectably into flakes (skrei or fresh haddock are good, turbot would be the bee’s knees). If you’ve used wild garlic, try it with a rack of lamb pinkly roasted and splayed out over the sauce. Continue reading →

Katzenthal – ever heard of it?

Posted on April 9, 2013 by Sue Style

$Wineck Schlossberg Kat\zenthal by Sue Style$ Katzenthal is an unassuming little Alsace vineyard village tucked away in the foothills of the Vosges. It’s not exactly on anyone’s beaten track and you have to mean to go there. Most people miss it, thundering by on the main road to Kaysersberg (for a tasting at Madame Faller et ses Filles perhaps?) or heading up into the Vosges for a picnic or lunch at a ferme-auberge. This is a mistake. Continue reading →

L’Auberge de l’Ill: Love it for Lunch

Posted on March 17, 2013 by Sue Style

There are loads of reasons for loving living in Alsace. One of them is that we can nip up to the Auberge de l’Ill in Illhauesern once in a while for lunch. Why lunch? Two – no, three – good reasons: first, Illhauesern is a bit far from us for dinner. Second, they do a great lunch menu. And finally, by day you get the views of the gardens and the sleek River Ill, views captured so beautifully by Jean-Pierre Haeberlin in his watercolours that illustrate the house menus. Continue reading →

Mexican Brunch

Posted on March 2, 2013 by Sue Style

Mexicans are seriously into brunch. Me too. OMG, can still remember those weekend brunch feasts in Santa Margarita (‘cuatrocientos dieciocho letra A’), or with friends in Cuernavaca after early-morning tennis, or at the elegant hacienda San Angel Inn in the DF or at popular Sanborns, Mexico’s newsagent-cum-chemist-cum restaurant chain (a bit like France’s FNAC but with food). On the menu there are always the usual Mexican suspects like chilaquiles, enchiladas, huevos rancheros and frijoles for ever. Continue reading →

No-Knead Bread

Posted on February 22, 2013 by Sue Style

I love baking bread, but I must be the very last person to get around to the kind you barely knead, made with minimal yeast and baked in a cast-iron casserole. When my tennis friend Charlotte started raving about it recently, I raced back from our doubles to try it out. I reckon it must be the one pioneered by the Sullivan St Bakery and immortalised by the New York Times in 2006. Continue reading →

Baeckeoffe – Perfect Winter Nosh

Posted on February 18, 2013 by Sue Style

Alsace has loads of robust, rib-sticking, flavour-packed dishes that are just right for winter days. Baeckeoffe, a one-pot meal that combines pork, beef, lamb and vegetables marinated in the region’s famously fragrant white wine, is one of the best.

The name of this classic Alsatian dish pulls together two dialect words: Baecke, the bakery and Offe, the oven. In the old days, ovens in private homes were an undreamed-of luxury – not to mention an unwelcome fire hazard (which explains why, if they existed at all, they were always stuck on the outside wall of the house, connected to the kitchen by a little iron door). Small, simple dishes were done in a pan on top of the stove. Larger items requiring all-round heat were prepped at home, then taken round to the village baker’s to be cooked in the wood-fired oven after the bread had had its turn. Continue reading →

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