Located near the northern extremes of world vine cultivation, Germany produces almost 10 million hectolitres of wine per annum, over 85% of which is white. Its viticulture and vine growing techniques are influenced by its marginal location where microclimates*, in particular site aspect and location, play a major role. The best wines come from the very steep terraced slopes unsuited to any other form of agriculture.Grape picking is mainly by hand and quite labour intensive. Frequently several pickings (tries) are made, throughout the vineyard, depending on grape ripeness. The average holding is small, as little as 1 hectare (2.47 acres), with many growers operating on a part-time basis and selling their grapes to one of the many co-operatives. The best wines come from the 'Einzellagen' or 'single estates'. Riesling* is the classic German grape and accounts for 40 per cent of total plantation. It has great ability to ripen in the cooler climate and produce fresh, elegant fruity wines with excellent varietal characteristics.
Vineyard scene, Germany
With the exception of the 'Trocken' or dry wines, the style of German wines is a balance of sweetness and acidity and its wine laws have largely evolved around this philosophy. The quality structure relates to the must weight or sugar content and wines are categorised as 'Tafelwein' or table wines, 'Landwein' or regional wines, and 'Qualitatswein' or quality wines. This latter category is divided into 'Qba' for simple quality wines and 'Qmp' for quality wines 'with distinction'. Within the 'Qmp' category are six ascending orders of quality, again based on must weights namely, 'Kabinett', 'Spätlese', 'Auslese', 'Beerenauslese' and 'Trockenbeerenauslese' (TBA). Be prepared to pay serious money for the last two categories, if you can get them, they are sublime. Another, and even rarer style of German wine is 'Eiswein', made from frozen grapes that have been left unpicked well into the winter - as close to 'nectar' as you can get.
'Chaptalisation*' - the addition of sugar to boost alcohol levels - is permitted, up to Qba levels but not for Qmp wines. The addition of 'Süssreserve' or 'sweet reserve' is permitted but is in decline and involves the addition of sterile unfermented grape juice to sweeten the wines. The much-maligned 'Liebfraumilch' accounts for one third of Germany's wine exports, mainly to Britain and the U.S., but is rarely consumed by the Germans. It is a bulk blended wine that has probably detracted from the very many fine wines coming from Germany. It is however a well made, clean fresh, grapey style, that has done much to introduce many newcomers to the world of wine and cannot be dismissed.
Red wine production, although small, is a dedicated industry especially in the Ahr region where one in three vines produce red grapes. Made primarily from the Portugieser and Spätburgunder varieties, they tend to be light in colour, not unlike an Alsace Pinot, with soft tannins and strawberry fruit characteristics.
The sparkling wine industry in Germany is also extremely important. Known as 'Sekt', its output is twice that of Champagne and consumed mainly by the Germans themselves. It is relatively inexpensive and mainly produced using the tank method (see Vinification* - Sparkling Wine) from a still base wine of non-German origin. Another category known as 'Deutscher Sekt' is made entirely from German based wine and in some cases, especially in the smaller single estates, is bottle fermented (see Champagne*).
