The Mosel River, Mosel Valley

The Jekyll and Hyde of the wine world- Germany produces some of the best but also some of the worst wines in the world!

Change the wine laws, change the labelling, abolish mass produced cheap exports such as Liebraumilch and a new wine era will be born. Simple.

Just learning about German wine laws and classification gives me a headache. And what a shame because WE MUST SEE BEYOND THIS, as Germany produces some of the most superb, high quality and best wines in the world.

Historically, Germany was a half communist country, whose end was signified with the downfall of the Berlin wall in 1989. Then, and now, politically there are huge problems trying to abolish the idea of elitism in wine classification.

This is because they will not classify vineyards based upon quality (like France, for example) as they believe it is fairer to classify wines according to ripeness of the grapes before fermentation. Therefore, any vineyard can potentially produce superb quality wines depending on the ripeness.

This, however, is ultimately confusing for the consumer along with the complicated labelling and area classification. The only way to guarantee you know what you are buying is to memorise the individual vineyards themselves!?

Riesling is the predominant grape grown here, due to Germany’s northern cool climate it flourishes. At their best, German Rieslings are perfectly balanced with high acidity and a touch of sweetness. They are also lower in alcohol content. The sweetness is due to this, as residual sugar is left behind and not fully converted to alcohol during fermentation.

Their lower alcohol content is, I know, unfashionable, but think of the calories you will save! The difference should be a reason to step up, change the trend and discover these incredible wines!

Another point to note is that we all eat a vast array of different cuisines these days. As German Rieslings have a gentle lightness, have high acidity and floral character, they match perfectly with Thai food, Tex Mex and Chinese dishes. Please do try them together and you will be pleasantly surprised!

Wine Regions:

The main wine regions of Germany are:

• Mosel-Saar-Ruwer
• Rheingau
• Rheinhessen
• Pfalz
• Baden

Most of the vineyards follow the banks of the rivers, so are beautiful to see.

German fine wines are classified as Qualitӓtswein bestimmter Anbaugebiet (QbA) and Qualitӓtswein mit Pradikat (QmP). These are the top classifications for German wines, the latter being unable to be enriched with sugar (thus unable to increase the alcohol level) and is only allowed to be made from one grape variety.

Classic Styles:

These are styles from the QmP category and are classified depending on their initial must weights. This is also based on ripeness. Riesling is usually the grape used for these quality wines. QmP wines:

• Kabinett – light, crisp and citrusy wines
• Spӓtlese – One step up, riper grapes used so there is more body and can have exotic fruit flavours
• Auslese – Ageworthy, sweeter wines
• Beerenauslese (BA) – rare, expensive wines made from grapes infected with noble rot (botrytis cinerea). This fungus drains a lot of the water from the grape causing it to shrink and concentrate its flavours and sugar content- incredible!
• Eiswein – this wine is made from grapes left on the vine to freeze in the winter. They are picked frozen and the water that has frozen in the grape is removed, leaving behind the sweet sugars. Very rare, very expensive and rich in fruit flavours. A superb dessert wine.
• Trockenbeerenauslese (TBA) – One of the world’s most expensive wines. These wines are made from grapes that are infected with botrytis cinerea (like BA’s), so that the grapes shrivel to raisins with no water content at all. This, therefore, concentrates the sugar and flavours intensely and produces hyper-sweet and rich wines

As you can see the greater the ripeness of the grape, the sweeter the wine and the more expensive it becomes!

• low alcohol, flowery, mass-produced wines such as Liebraumilch
• soft, red fruit Pinot Noir. Note: there are a surprisingly high percentage of red wines made in this cold country, which you would not expect with the climate.

Grape Varieties:

• Riesling
• Müller-Thurgau
• Silvaner (whites)
• Pinot Noir (also called Spӓtburgunder)
• Dornfelder (reds)

Must Tastes:

• Riesling from the Rheingau region e.g. Franz Künstler and Robert Weil
• Riesling from the Nahe region e.g. Dönnhoff Estate
• Eiswein
• TBA’s

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