There have always been restaurants in Germany where wine is celebrated but the kitchen only plays a subordinate role. Older Munich residents can remember a dozen or so wine bars in the city that were visited almost exclusively for their affordable wines. Apart from the Palatinate wine taverns in the residence, none of these restaurants has been able to survive in the city. It is all the more surprising that Italy of all places, the country in which the Germanic special form of drinking, drinking outside of meals, is actually frowned upon, has initiated the initiative for a restaurant in which the relationship between eating and drinking has shifted towards drinking is like in old German wine bars – but on a much more ambitious level.
The Masi Wein-Bar would like to contrast the pizza-pasta Italian, who is so popular in Germany and who serves cheap wines, a counter-model. The festive, modern ambience of the restaurant is completely in tune with the culture of wine enjoyment. The elongated dining room with the red seating opens into a cabinet, in the middle of which stands the massive sculpture of a table, which is as massive as an altar and invites you to wine tastings. The glass wall, however, which rises up next to it, opens into an adjoining room in which red wines are kept at the ideal temperature of 17.8 degrees like in a shrine. At best, star restaurants in the upper price range can boast with temperature control cabinets of this size. And at best the sommeliers of such bars can tell as many interesting things about the wines that are stored in their cellars as the waiters in the Masi wine bar can tell about the treasures entrusted to them.
Only wines from internationally respected top producers from the Veneto and Trentino who have joined forces for this project are offered. Masi, probably the best-known producer of Amarone wines – he perfected the technique of drying the grapes and introduced double fermentation – is joined by Canevel, one of the few Prosecco wineries that is located in the heart of the Valdobbiadene area and only uses grapes from the original grape variety Glera used. In their joint restaurant in Munich, almost all wines, including some of the most expensive – in tenths of a liter portions – are served openly. If you want, you can try one of the mature red wines from Valpolicella or compare different Prosecco wines with each other and thus open the prosecco-typical taste fan that is always closed in the mass products of the same name.
The dining room opens into a cabinet, in the middle of which stands the massive sculpture of a table, which is as massive as an altar and invites you to wine tastings.
(Photo: Catherina Hess)
The fine wines have their price
But quality has its price. The tasting glass of Prosecco brut costs 7.80 euros, the same amount of wine from the tiny Cartizze location costs 14.80 euros. In the case of red wines, the price for the fine wines that are currently covering the bottom of the glass can rise to an impressive 36 euros. Of course, we did not get as far as these astronomical heights during testing. In the categories significantly lower in price, however, all the wines that we tried – including rarities such as the extremely tannic red wine Osoleta, rediscovered by Masi – were convincing, even enthusiastic.
Delicacies to nibble on: calamari with red potato chips.
(Photo: Catherina Hess)
When it comes to food, it was a little more difficult for the restaurant, which was often half empty in the Corona year, to meet the high standards and to maintain the standard that the wine list specifies. On the first evening, a Tuesday, several main dishes were not available. And one side dish had been replaced by another on one of the plates we ordered at the time. The comparatively inexpensive sea bass (19.90), which was strangely dry, also posed a certain riddle. We could have made friends with the duck breast if the compote-like, luscious currant sauce boiled with amarone hadn’t taken some of its own taste from the juicy piece of meat it was poured over (19.90). The fact that dishes with Amarone wine are not only powerfully flavored, but can also be interpreted in an almost completely new way, was impressively demonstrated with the risotto of the house. The deep dark red wine discolors the rice grains in a rather strange direction, but in combination with the Veronese mountain cheese melted on it, it gives the dish a characteristic force that invites you to cook it.
The Süddeutsche Zeitung’s restaurant review “Tasting” has a long tradition: it has been published weekly in the local section since 1975, and for several years also online and with a rating scale. About a dozen editors with culinary experience from all departments – from Munich, knowledge to politics – take turns writing about the city’s gastronomy. The choice is endless, the Bavarian economy is just as important as the Greek fish restaurant, the American fast food chain, the special bratwurst stand or the gourmet restaurant decorated with stars. The special thing about the SZ tasting: The authors write under pseudonyms, often with a culinary touch. You go undetected to the restaurant to be tested about two or three times, depending on how long the budget set by the editorial team lasts. Iron basic rules: a hundred days grace period until the kitchen of a new restaurant has settled in. And: Never get caught working as a restaurant critic – so that you can describe food and drink, service and atmosphere in an unbiased manner. SZ
Of the starters, the large noodle pockets filled with scallop and prawn meat with the pieces of sepia squid fried in white wine were particularly deeply impressed (22.90). The fluffy, light potato and lemon cream, on whose yellow mound roasted sepia pieces, fresh thyme and blobs of virgin olive oil formed a highly appetizing pattern, was highly praised (16.90). We reached the peak of taste with the tajarin egg noodles and the white truffles melted in and sliced on top (24.90). Of the desserts, at least the Pandoro from Verona should be mentioned at the end, a baked slice of panettone dough soaked in extremely expensive dessert wine and decorated with whipped cream, which tastes devilishly good in all its simplicity (9.90).
Masi wine bar, Address: Maximilianstrasse 40, 80539 Munich, Telephone: 089/23032565, Opening times: Monday to Saturday 11 a.m. to 10 p.m.