Guests enjoyed dishes such as hot smoked trout and langoustine tartlets, Windsor partridge wrapped in puff pastry, and baked Alaska with blackberry and raspberry ice cream. Wines included a 1995 Château La Fleur-Pétrus, chosen to mark the year the German President and First Lady married. A cherry brandy and chocolate cocktail, inspired by Black Forest Gateau, rounded out the evening.
King Charles’ Speech
In his address, King Charles said: “It seems only yesterday that we paid our State Visit to Germany in 2023, the first one since my Accession… That makes the pleasure all the greater that we can welcome you here at Windsor as our guests, a mark of a very special friendship that binds our two nations.”
He highlighted the new Kensington Treaty, signed at the V&A Museum, referencing the historic bond represented by Queen Victoria and Prince Albert: “My great, great, great grandfather brought so much to this country… not least as the moving force behind the 1851 Great Exhibition.”
President Steinmeier, reflecting on his youth, said he grew up listening to British Forces radio and being fascinated by British culture. He added: “Never could I have imagined that later… I would be a guest of the British King at Windsor Castle.”
