This week’s photo challenge of Local was an easy one for us considering our move into a new country and neighborhood. We have mentioned this place a couple of times already and the reason for that is that it has become our favorite local watering hole. In fact, one of the bartenders, Dadan, called his wife to get a list of sites that ended up helping us to find our new home. We have found the Alten Limpburg to be the perfect place to grab a pint and a glass of wine to unwind at the end of a long day.
Sitting Inside of the PubOur New Favorite Pub in FrankfurtDadan Behind the BarThe Two of Us at the Pub
As we toured through the old city, called Altstadt in German, we came across a wonderful little festival that is going on through next weekend. Besides the food vendors and vendors selling art, clothing, and souvenirs, there were also booths for wine and even better, Apfelwein, or apple wine. It isn’t actually a wine, but is actually a hard cider fermented from pressed apples. Unlike hard ciders that you find in the United States, this wasn’t as fruity, but rather more like a mild beer and quite delicious. It is always served in a lattice-patterned glass called a Gerippte and for larger groups you can get blue and gray pitchers called Bembels.
Apfelwien in GlassesFestival SignClowning Around
Although we have already had our fair share of local beers already, trying the Apfelwein was truly enjoyable, especially with the cool brisk autumn air and the leaves changing on the trees around us. Nothing seems to bring out the taste of autumn like apple and what better way to get that than an outstanding adult beverage. Not that we aren’t going to get our fill of apple strudel as well. Sitting in the old pubs, like the one in the town square called Alten Limpburg, is a great way to people watch, chat with the locals, and enjoy a nice pint of beer or refreshing glass of wine.
Sitting Inside of the PubSitting Outside in the Town Square
We have learned a lot about the local Riesling wines as well as beers like Hefeweizen, which actually comes in more varieties that just light wheat, but we’ll share more about those another post. For now, sit back and imagine yourself enjoying a refreshing, fizzly, cider that will make you feel relaxed and ready for the upcoming winter. We have had a long day today as we went back to work for this first time since we moved to Frankfurt, so the vacation is over, but the explorations are not. We will enjoy the free time that we have, but for now we don’t have to imagine a glass of Apfelwien, we will go and relax with one to end our day and recuperate for tomorrow. 😀
Plenty of Good Beer to be FoundAlten Limpburg Crest
We are certainly guilty of having a favorite wine that we purchase whether for home or at a restaurant, but trying new wines is the only way to discover wines that may become your new favorite. It isn’t just the brand of wine that you buy, but also the varieties of grapes that you choose. Sure, you may love chardonnay for your white or merlot for your red and that might be what you like the most, however, if you are willing to experiment, you might just find alternative choices.
Flavorful Merlot
Let us be clear, we are not wine experts and are definitely not wine snobs. We like what we like and are willing to pair wines with food based on our tastes and mood, not some contrived rule about what you’re supposed to have with certain foods. Red wine with fish, why not? If it tastes good to you then you should feel free to drink what you like with whatever you want. The same is true with trying different wines with different foods than you have in the past, you may never know what combination turns out to trip your flavor trigger.
White Bordeaux
One of the things that we did to try and help us grow our wine experience was to join a wine club. Obviously there are several out there, but most of them have reasonable prices and you can usually choose to get all red, all white, or a mix. We chose to get a mix of wines and the white wines will often contain a blush of some sort, which has changed our opinions on blush wines to some extent.  We used to think that they were all too fruity, but that hasn’t turned out to be the case, we have found some of them to be more robust in flavor.
A Previous Shipment
Don’t worry, we won’t be trying to tell you what wine to buy or trying to come across like a sommelier. Occasionally, we might let you know about a wine that we’ve found interesting, but mostly trying new wines is just something that we like to do for ourselves.  If you like wine, try experimenting with different grape varieties, different brands, different flavor profiles, etc. Sometimes you’ll find some duds that you don’t like at all, but there will be other times where you’ll find that special wine that becomes your new favorite.
