Germany

Germany's white wines are delicate offerings - low in alcohol and often high in lively acidity.

The climate is too cool for ripening many red wine grapes - except in the lower west region of Baden - and attaining sugar even in white wine grapes during the ripening season is sometimes a challenge.

German winemakers are the Riesling kings - particularly in the Rheingau and Mosel-Saar-Ruwer regions.

Major Grape Varietals:

A structured labelling system is based on the ripeness of the grapes.

This is meant as an indication of quality - and unlike the appellation laws of France, ensures that ANY vineyard is able to produce high quality wines.

Classification of wines into the categories is based on vintage ripeness. This is measured in ºÖchsle. To give you some idea of what this means, let's compare ºÖchsle with ºBaumé:

If you have read the winemaking pages, you'll be aware that ºBaumé in wine grapes at time of harvest is a good indicator of alcohol content of resulting wine.

In the same manner as a few of her neighbours, Germany's wines are split into two major categories - Table Wine and Quality Wine ... which are then broken down thus:

Table Wine

Deutscher Tafelwein - 44-50 ºÖchsle

Table Wine is blended only from German wines. The don't have to show the wine region on the lable, but if they do, it must be one of four designated Tafelweingebiete (table wine regions): Rhein-Mosel, Oberrhein, Neckar, or Bayern

Landwein - 47-53 ºÖchsle

These wines come from 17 designated areas or Landweingebiete. "Landweingebiete" must appear on the label. The wine style can be either Trocken (dry) or Halbtrocken (medium-dry) and must be labelled as such.

Quality Wine

QbA - Qualitatswein bestimmter Anbaugebiete - 50-72 ºÖchsle

Under this ruling, wine must come only from one Anbaugebiet (region), and its name must appear on the label.

There are 13 Anbaugebiet:

Specific wine grape varietals are included in this classification.

QmP - Qualitatswein mit Pradikat

Specific wine grape Variety, Anbaugebiet (region) and Bereich (district) may be shown on the wine's label, along with the name of Gemainde (commune) or Grosslage (adjoining vineyard group) or Einzellage (individual vineyard) - subject to the 85% content rule.

Chaptalisation in this classification is not allowed.

Product release dates are regulated.

This wine category includes six gradings of ripeness and Edelfaule (Botrytis Cenerea):

Last Modified: Sunday, February 07, 2010