Wine regions of the world 11, German wine

I do not know about most people but my first taste of wine was a German wine at Christmas dinner table, just a splash in a glass. I do not know what it was and to be honest at the time I was not really that bother but I do remember that it was sweet and drinkable.

Now you could say that this is a problem that German wine has suffered in this country over that last few years. The trouble was that German wine was so easy to drink , it was sweet and went down well, you could rely  on it from bottle to bottle to be the same. At the time, a great number of the British armed serviced where posted in Germany, and grew a taste for the wine. It did not seem elitist like French wine, and was well just better than the so-called “Cheap Spanish Plonk” as I remember was a generic term used for almost any thing from the rest of Europe. But this changed and the new world wines started to come in to our shops. People who drank wine tried other wines and found they liked them. And with all things that you grow to like your taste change in them. With alcohol almost every one starts with some thing sweet and then moves on to some thing dryer. I do not know if there is a good reason for this or some thing that has been recorded in a medical journal but that is my experience. Both as a consumer and a purveyor of wine beers and spirits.

Also it became a sort of social embarrassment to be drinking German wine. It was almost as if you were saying to the world I have no real taste in wine so I drink this and that would no doubt have been the good old Liebfraumilch. Probably one wine this mainly cheap, mass-market, sweet wine has probably done as much damage to the German wine industry as it has made them profits.

However, the thing is once you get past that and really get beyond what after all probably one of the best selling wines in the UK at one point, and take a little time to get to know German wines you fine a very different picture.

Most of Germanys  wine production is in the west of Germany, along the river Rhine and its tributaries. The oldest vineyards can trace there history right back to the Romans. Germany has about 102,000 hectares or 252,000 acres of vineyards, total wine production is usually around 9 million hectolitres a year. This goes in to making 1.2 billion bottles and that makes Germany as the eighth largest wine-producing country in the world. Germany accounts for almost two thirds of the total white wine production. And you say well it’s a big country it should be able to do that but 60 percent of the German wine production is situated in the federal state of Rhineland-Palatinate, which when you look at a map is just the bottom left hand side near France.

Germany does have, despite its reputation for cheap wine, some of the world’s most elegant and aromatically pure white wines. Primarily based on Riesling grape variety, giving an aromatic, fruity and elegant white wines. Every thing from a crisp and dry to sweet all with a good aromatic nose.

And this is not to forget that as Germany is known as a primarily a white wine producer they make red wine as well. In fact the red wine production has increased since the 1990s and early 2000s, mainly for domestic consumption. In fact, you can get almost any style of German wine white wines, rosé wines, red wines and sparkling wines that range from dry, semi-sweet and sweet.

And most of this is due to the northerly location of the German vineyards unlike any other in Europe. It is very difficult to get grapes to ripen so far north. So most of the best vineyards are on steep slops overlooking rivers. The vines often are trained on individual wooden stakes, or Einzelpfahlerziehung. And it is this method of growing that produces such unique and consistently good wines. I often think that this is down to the fact that the geography of the vineyards still make it a very manual job. So the growers really get to know there vines.

Now to know what to look for on the label is relatively easy.  You have 13wine regions or Anbaugebiete. These are broken down into 39 districts or Bereiche and they in turn are broken down into 167 collective vineyard sites or Großlagen, and finally individual vineyard or Einzellagen. Now to go through all the regions would be to complicated  in this article so here are the main regions the  Ahr, Baden, Franconia,  Hessische Bergstraße,  Mittelrhein, Mosel, Nahe, Palatinate,  Rheingau, Rheinhessen, Saale-Unstrut , Saxony  and the  Württemberg.

The most common white wine grapes are Riesling,  Müller-Thurgau,  Silvaner, Kerner, Bacchus, Scheurebe, Gewürztraminer, Grauer Burgunder and  Weisser Burgunder. For your red wine you have Spätburgunder or Pinot Noir, Dornfelder Portugieser, Trollinger, Schwarzriesling and Lemberger.  These are the main greap variatys but you will see others. According to the German wine law, there is a list of grape varieties allowed in wine production.

Now you know the region and the grape then you need to look for the quality of the wine. Now in true German efficacy the classification once you know the terms used tell you a lot. There are basically 4 classification and they are as follows

Deutscher Tafelwein or table wine mainly drank in Germany and not exported. Also can be blended but it can not be a Qualitätswein. Then you have Deutscher Landwein or country wine, both are just ordinary wines of the region or country.

Then you move on to the Qualitätswein wines. Qualitätswein bestimmter Anbaugebiete or QbA is  wine from a defined appellation. Then you have Prädikatswein or Qualitätswein mit Prädikat or QmP. These wine are made form grapes of higher ripeness. This means that thay have more fruit characteristics and are of better quality. Now Prädikatswein is then split into other categorise Kabinett, Spätlese, Auslese, Beerenauslese, Trockenbeerenauslese and Eiswein

Kabinett wines are made from grapes that have achieved minimum defined potential alcohol levels. Spätlese wines are late harvest, Auslese wines are select harvest, are once again made from grapes that have achieved minimum defined potential alcohol levels. Then you have Beerenauslese wines or berry selection, these are made from grapes that may have been affected by Botrytis. This is a fungus that perforates the skin forcing water out and concentrating all the other elements making a very sweet wine. Trockenbeerenauslese  or dry berries selection wines are made from greaps form the vine that look like raisin  high in sugar making a extremely sweet, concentrated wine. And finally Eiswein or ice wine is made grapes that have frozen on the vine. Then are harvested and pressed in the frozen state.

Then you havehow they taste form Trocken, dry wine, Halbtrocken, off-dry, Feinherb, slightly sweet and Lieblich sweet wine . the only thing to throw a spanner in the works is our old friend Liebfraumilch, this is classed as a Qualitätswein which can be blended from several regions and still be classified as Qualitätswein.

And that is it really German wine a victim of its own success, that became socially unacceptable. Well I say look for Qualitätswein or Qualitätswein mit Prädikat  and you will not be disappointed.