Gregorian chants echo through the cellar, which is lit only by flickering candles as we shuffle through in a solemn procession, draped in brown, hooded, floor-length habits. Vast barrels line the walls. But the usual musty scent of a wine cellar is missing. Instead there’s a distinctive whiff of vinegar in the air.
Fortunately the wine hasn’t gone off. I’m at the Doktorenhof, a sprawling, 16th-century farmhouse in the wine-growing town of Venningen, near the German riverside town of Speyer. A few decades ago Georg Wiedemann, whose family have made wine here for centuries, decided that he’d focus on gourmet wine vinegar instead, to great success.
The habits, it transpires, are to protect the fermenting vinegar from our own aromas — and to give us a feeling of dressing like plague doctors. In the 14th century, when this area was part of the Holy Roman Empire, plague was rife. The medics would arrive to tend the sick covered from head to toe, their hoods and collars doused with vinegar, a natural antiseptic. Today our robes make for great selfies, especially given the setting, with old paintings and winemaking equipment artfully displayed in every room.
This unusual excursion is one of several offered by Uniworld on its Castles along the Rhine cruise from Amsterdam to Basel. I’ve sailed this route many times, but what I love about my week on the swish riverboat SS Victoria is that I’m discovering so many things, thanks to an array of creative and carefully planned shore excursions.
Needless to say the vinegar tour includes a tasting. Vinegar in salad dressing, vinegar in vindaloo: fine. Some like cider vinegar for breakfast. But I’ve never drunk the stuff. We’re presented with tasting glasses and take tiny sips. It’s a revelation. The vinegars are like nectar, popping with layers of flavour. I buy a bottle of Angels Kiss the Night, which contains cherry, apricot, figs and vanilla. Back home I drizzle it over strawberries. It’s exquisite.
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A few of us continue to the converted 17th-century barn of the chef Matthias Mangold, where we spend a blissfully indulgent afternoon learning to cook with vinegar. Uniworld has an exclusive relationship with Mangold, who is a celebrity in Germany, with many cookbooks under his belt, and even with the £180pp price tag this turns out to be the best cookery class I’ve ever done.
It’s asparagus season in Germany, so we peel great bunches of white asparagus, which are then stewed with vinegar, ginger, spices and pureed into a soup. Next we make frittata with salami, big handfuls of Swiss cheese, eggs and cream, slow baked in the oven and served with a salsa featuring Casanova vinegar, one of the samples we’d tasted.
A slow-cooked chicken stew is flavoured with vinegar, mustard and cream and served with tiny roast new potatoes scattered with rock salt and rosemary from the garden. We bake mini chocolate cakes spiced with Angels Kiss the Night, my vinegar, served with strawberries doused in Cointreau.
There were plenty of chances to be active on this cruise too. I joined a walking tour around Cologne, which was buzzing in the spring sunshine, the beer gardens and squares crammed with drinkers, even on a weekday afternoon. Our guide, Jessica, said that Cologne is famed in Germany for its relaxed work ethic, and partying and enjoying life are even written into the 11 articles of the city’s constitution.
Of course the big draw of the city is its colossal cathedral, which took more than 600 years to build and in 1880, when it was finished, was the tallest building in the world. We wandered in, flabbergasted by the sheer height inside, and admired the gold caskets that are said to house the remains of the three wise men.
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By Koblenz we’d left the industrial landscapes of North Rhine-Westphalia and were sailing past hills and vineyards. I joined a cycle tour, an invigorating 15 miles along the bike path that follows the Rhine, heading south from Koblenz through sun-dappled woods, the sound of birdsong in the air, just the gentle sloshing of the river as an accompaniment. Our guide, Volker, told me that the Rhine used to be filthy but the factories that were polluting it were made to clean up their act and some 40 species of fish have now been reintroduced. I thought with sadness about the polluted Thames on my own doorstep.
Barges are a constant presence of any Rhine cruise, many of them chugging all the way from Amsterdam to the Black Sea in a constant rotation, some heavily laden with scrap metal, cars or containers, others high in the water. I laughed when we passed one called Argie. We were deep in the Rhine gorge by now, in the pretty wine-growing town of Boppard, all grand riverside villas and neatly tended window boxes of geraniums.
Here the Rhine has carved a perfect loop around the hills, and to get the perfect photo I took a very slow chairlift up over the oak and beech forest to the hill above the town, the meadows beneath me strewn with scarlet poppies, and followed a woodland trail. The view, when you reach the lookout point, is extraordinary; the curve of the river is perfectly symmetrical. Boats ploughed up and down, castles gazing out over the vineyards and SS Victoria, tiny but stately, far below.
I sailed on this ship when it belonged to Crystal Cruises, a company that built four lavishly luxurious riverboats and then went bust in February 2022. Riverside Luxury Cruises, a German company, snapped up the four ships and is operating two of them. The other two have been chartered by Uniworld, which is known for its ultra-luxurious riverboats with opulent, intricately designed interiors.
Uniworld hasn’t put its design stamp on the Victoria, as it doesn’t own the ship, so it’s pretty much as Crystal left it. The cabins are stylish, the soft silver and grey colour scheme accentuated with pops of emerald. Each one has a French balcony, so you’ll never get one of those low-down rooms with a tiny window. There’s a beautiful sunlit lounge with tiny crystals around the ceiling lights and glass panels on the roof to let the light in, as well as a miniature gym and spa room where I had an excellent and snooze-inducing massage. I was hopeful for a dip in the indoor pool but it was just too cold.
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Hopping nightlife and river cruises don’t usually go hand in hand, but local acts are brought on board nonetheless. I was dubious about the Swingers, but they turned out to be a burly Dutch rock trio playing excellent covers of Van Morrison and Fleetwood Mac until an audience member screeched for Dancing Queen and they had to cobble together an Abba set. Nobody stayed up late, though; the bar was usually quiet by 10.30pm. If the other guests were anything like me, they were lulled by the active days, the fine dining and the free-flowing cocktails.
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The food was outstanding: delicious buffets for breakfast and lunch and à la carte for dinner, with plenty of local colour, including asparagus and strawberries, French onion soup, the inevitable Black Forest gateau and some delicious tarte flambée (a super-skinny pizza topped with sour cream, bacon and onion) when we were in Strasbourg, a day sadly marred by lashing rain.
My dream of sitting down to a sunlit lunch of tarte flambée and a glass of crisp Alsace was initially dashed by the weather, but realised the following day in the enchanting little town of Eguisheim, all wonky, half-timbered houses and cobbled lanes.
On board I signed up for a Progressive Dinner (£81pp), where you have different courses in different areas of the ship. There was no food in the engine room, mercifully, but in the galley the chef was waiting with filo cigars and dips of soy sauce, sweet chilli and guacamole, with a crisp sauvignon blanc. Then to the laundry room for mustard soup, a local speciality, and to the pool area for battered prawns with a garlic mayo.
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The evening ended in the Vintage Room, the ship’s private dining room, reserved for chef’s table dinners and wine tastings, where we exchanged stories. An extremely glamorous woman from Detroit was cruising with her granddaughter as a post-graduation treat. A couple of wealthy New Yorkers wasted no time in telling us that American politics was driving them to move to London.
The air was warm, the scent of blossom in the air, so I had a final glass of wine on deck, the lights of the wine taverns on the riverfront glowing. Barges ploughed up and down the now inky-black river, each one shining just a single searchlight, on their endless journeys, crisscrossing a continent.
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Sue Bryant was a guest of Uniworld, which has an all-inclusive, seven-night Castles along the Rhine cruise from £3,399pp, including flights, tips and activities, departing on November 3 (uniworld.com)
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