Kalte Ente

Kalte Ente is a Rhineland and Mosel party drink, the kind of Bowle, a wine punch, you set down for a birthday table, a summer supper, or Silvester when nobody wants another heavy glass. Köln and Düsseldorf like it tart and barely sweet. Along the Mosel some cooks lean on Riesling and let the wine do the talking; farther south you find punch bowls crowded with fruit. Not here. This is lemon peel, white wine, and Sekt, German sparkling wine. Das ist kein Bierzelt.

The technique is the peel. I cut one long spiral from an unwaxed lemon and take almost none of the white pith, because the yellow skin gives oil and fragrance while the pith gives bitterness. Then I steep it cold in the wine just long enough to scent the bowl. Leave it all afternoon and you've made lemon rind tea in wine. That isn't clever.

The Sekt goes in last, cold from the refrigerator, because bubbles are part of the drink and they don't survive stirring and waiting. Sugar is a correction, not the foundation. Taste the wine first, add a little syrup only if the lemon has made it too sharp, and keep it clean. Erst verstehen, dann kochen.