Whisky & Food

In autumn, a fisherman pulls in the nets on the pond near Roggenreith. In the fields right nearby, the poppy harvest is long done by this time. Potatoes, poppy seeds, and carp are the backbone ingredients of Waldviertel cuisine. They grow or live on the same sparse granite soil that also supplies the rye for the whisky.

The region's best-known dish is Waldviertel poppy seed noodles. Waxy potatoes are boiled, mashed, and worked with flour, butter, and egg into a dough. The dough is shaped into small noodles and tossed in browned butter, before being generously sprinkled with Waldviertel gray poppy seed – a gray, mild poppy variety especially common in this area.

The Original Rye Whisky J.H. pairs with this better than it might first sound. Its pepper and caraway notes meet the mild sweetness of the poppy seed noodles and create a contrast without overpowering them. A barley whisky without this spiciness would seem rather flat next to the gray poppy.

With Waldviertel carp, often served baked under a potato-poppy seed crust or smoked, things are different. The mild, slightly earthy fish flesh works well with the smokier Dark Rye Malt Peated. Its conifer-wood tone picks up on the carp's own earthiness instead of fighting against it.

In the end, what connects whisky and Waldviertel cuisine isn't some invented pairing rule but the same soil. What grows in the fields around Roggenreith ends up either in the cask or on the plate. Often, that happens on one and the same day.