A 900-person hamlet in the Rheinpfalz has just become the unlikely epicentre of German fine dining. L.A. Jordan in Deidesheim has been awarded a third Michelin star, taking Germany's total to 12 and slotting the restaurant into the world's top 150. Chef Daniel Schimkowitsch earned the first star in the restaurant's opening year, 2014, and the second nine years later; on hearing the third was confirmed, managing director Ole Leidner compared the mood to winning the football World Cup.
Demand has been immediate. The reservations line lit up within minutes, with calls from the UK and New York, and the book is now effectively full until September. The dish drawing the critics in: Atlantic monkfish with a umami-heavy chanponzu sauce and Périgord truffle. The restaurant, named for founder Ludwig Andreas Jordan rather than the basketball player, sits inside a town that has long punched above its weight — Chancellor Helmut Kohl used to bring visiting leaders, including the Queen, Margaret Thatcher and Mikhail Gorbachev, to eat at the Deidesheimerhof on the main square. Frankfurt financiers have treated it as a weekend playground for years; it's about 1 hour 15 minutes down the Autobahn.
Deidesheim is as much about the vineyards as the tasting menus. The town sits on the Weinstrasse, ringed by family-run wine estates — Weingut von Winning at the historic end, newcomer Weingut Rienhardt in a striking glass building, Reichsrat von Buhl (which rolls in Mexican food trucks during the Wine Festival) and Kimich, with its hidden back garden, resident turtle and occasional flamenco guitar. Beyond the local Riesling, look for Gewürztraminer, Spätburgunder pinot noir and Auxerrois, a dangerously drinkable white.
The calendar gives you reasons to come at any time of year. March brings the Pfälzer Mandelblüte, when almond and cherry trees bloom pink and white in what the writer calls a crowd-free mini Kyoto. May is the Goat Festival — a neighbouring village delivers a goat on Whit Tuesday in exchange for grazing rights — newly awarded UNESCO cultural status. July sees an international wine and summer garden party at the Ketschauer Hof (tickets from €300, already gone), October brings the Jazzwanderung wine-and-jazz walk through autumn colour, and winter has a lantern-lit St Martin procession and a genuinely underrated Christmas market.
Eat and drink beyond the three stars, too: sister restaurant 1718 for relaxed French cooking, the koi-pond Kaisergarten terrace on sunny afternoons, face-sized schnitzels at Gaststätte Winzerverein, and excellent sushi from Japanese chefs at Sushi.B inside Weingut Reichsrat von Buhl. For a proper local experience, order a Dubbeglas — a dimpled half-litre glass of wine — or pace yourself with a weinschorle, a 50/50 wine and sparkling water mix.
Who's it for? Gourmands who like their fine dining with vineyard walks attached, and anyone tired of queueing for tables in bigger food cities. There are no tour buses here, English is spoken but not dominant, and that's precisely the appeal — for now. The waiting list suggests it won't stay a secret much longer.
Report by Condé Nast Traveller UK.
