Rieslingspaschtéit, the meat pie set with Riesling jelly

If I had to choose one product to explain Luxembourg at the table, I’d hesitate between crémant and this pie. Rieslingspaschtéit brings together two things that define the country in a single mouthful, the craft of its delicatessens and the white wine of the Moselle. And it has one huge advantage for travellers, because you’ll find it in any bakery.

What is Rieslingspaschtéit?

The country’s official portal calls it the queen of pies, a culinary tradition and heritage of its own. It describes a pie with wine jelly, long like a log, with a hole on top and a pastry crown for decoration. Cut a slice and you find a filling of marinated veal with jelly made from Luxembourg Riesling. It adds that making one takes time, patience and discipline, and, in the English version, that you’ll find them in every bakery across the country, to be enjoyed cold.

The tourist board lists it among the country’s specialities alongside Bamkuch and Kachkéis, and calls it pâté au Riesling, which is how you’ll often see it written in French. British readers might think of a pork pie, though the jelly here is made with wine, which is my comparison, not the portal’s.

A 1928 story, according to its inventors

On the tourist board’s page about patisseries and delicatessens, Christian Kaempff, who runs the Kaempff-Kohler house with his brother, tells the story. His grandfather Pierre invented it in 1928. He was in a café with friends, there was Riesling and they were peckish, but something was missing to go with the wine, so he came up with a meat pie in pastry with Riesling and jelly. He tells it with a wink, saying it means wine drinkers have something to eat, stay longer and drink more.

That’s the company’s version rather than an independent historical record, and that’s how I’m passing it on. Christian also claims it only exists in the Grand Duchy. What is a fact, according to the same page, is that other fine delis now make it, that Kaempff-Kohler, Oberweis and Namur all hold the court supplier label, and that it now has a little sister, the Tourte au Pinot Noir, made with Luxembourg red grapes.

Once your dates are set, check which hotels are still free in Remich before prices climb.

How to eat it

Cold, with a glass of Riesling, as the official portal recommends. I’d have it as an aperitif before a meal or as a light lunch with bread, which is where it shines. If someone offers it to you hot, be wary, because the jelly is part of the point.

Of the vines in production across the Grand Duchy, 13.1% are Riesling, some 153 hectares, and Wormeldange likes to call itself its capital. It holds a three-day festival devoted to the grape on the third weekend of September, across the villages of the commune. On the grapes and choosing a bottle, see Luxembourg wine; on the village, Wormeldange.

A proper Luxembourg aperitif

If you want to do it the local way, I’d put the Rieslingspaschtéit in the middle and add some Kachkéis, the cooked spreading cheese the tourist board likens to cancoillotte, bakery bread and a glass of Riesling or crémant. You can buy the lot in a morning between a bakery, a deli and the Place Guillaume II market, held on Wednesdays and Saturdays. It’s a half-hour job that tells you more about the country than plenty of guided tours, and it costs far less than lunch in a city-centre restaurant.

Once your dates are set, check which hotels are still free in Remich before prices climb.

Where to buy it

In any bakery or delicatessen in the country, which is the most useful thing I can tell you. If you want the one from the house that says it invented it, Kaempff-Kohler is the name the tourist board gives. For anyone on a tight budget it’s also the best cheap meal in the country, as I explain in cheap eats in Luxembourg.

Can you take it home?

I wouldn’t count on it. Great Britain has strict rules on bringing in meat and dairy products, so check the latest gov.uk guidance before packing one. My advice is to enjoy it there and bring home a bottle of Riesling or crémant instead, which sits within the personal allowances and keeps far better in a suitcase. The rest of the country’s food is in Luxembourg food.

If you would rather have a local show you round, book a guided tour in Remich and choose by the reviews.

A car frees you from timetables: search car hire in Luxembourg on DiscoverCars and compare companies.

So you do not pay over the odds, look at trains, coaches and flights to Luxembourg on Omio and pick the one that suits you.