Wines of Germany

Let’s clarify one thing right away: Not all German wines are sweet. In fact, few are.

Sure, 30 years ago, when America woke up to wine, a covey of nuns in blue brought us all we knew about German wine—and the news was sweet.

But that’s an old—very old—story. By and large, today’s German wines are dry. Plus, they’re so delicious and versatile at the table that anyone serious about dining, once having tasted them with food, is stricken with addiction for them. And note, when Germans dine, they drink their dry wines.

Photo by Chris Weiher on unsplash.com

Miracle
In any case, German wines are a miracle. Germany’s vineyards lie along the 50th parallel—so do Labrador and Mongolia—making it the most northerly winemaking region on the globe. The climate at that latitude makes it tough for grapes to ripen, but it also gives German wines something by nature that other winemaking regions kill for: terrific acidity.

Balance
What distinguishes German wines, especially its white wines (85% of total German wine), is a ravishing balance between this tangy acidity and a bazooka-like delivery of fruit, especially in wines made from the Riesling grape. You’ll find this electric balance in any well-made German white wine, from dry to super-sweet.

Styles
Lamentably, it’s still a chore to figure out what’s inside a bottle of German wine, despite an excess of information on a label (among which you actually can read the government I.D. number for the bottler).

Simply keep things simple. All you really need to know is: at what stage of ripeness were the grapes picked, and how sweet the wine is.

Ripeness
Better German wines are categorized by how ripe the grapes were when they were picked, the idea being that the longer a grape hangs on the vine, the sweeter and richer in flavor it gets. Wine made from very ripe grapes has very much flavor—and, sometimes, very much sweetness.

If you know a little German, you can pick apart these words, but in ascending order of ripeness these categorizations are: kabinett, spätlese, auslese, beerenauslese, trockenbeerenauslese and eiswein.

What you need to know is that kabinett and spätlese can range from slightly to quite sweet, and that the other levels are all very sweet.

Sweetness
German wines are either dry (called trocken), slightly dry (halbtrocken) or they can range from semi-dry to very sweet.

Trocken wines can be screechingly dry, or with the ever-so-slightest whisper of sweetness. Halbtrocken wines are about as “dry” as Brut Champagne—and several “dry” California or Australian Chardonnays—or about 1-2% residual sugar. Sweetness is perceptible, but it isn’t in the forefront.

Remember that trocken and halbtrocken mark the level of sweetness in the finished wine notwithstanding the level of ripeness of the grapes. For instance, you may see a spätlese trocken wine. This would be a very dry wine made from very ripe grapes.

On the other hand, if a kabinett or spätlese wine is not labeled trocken or halbtrocken, it can be difficult to tell if it is just off-dry or noticeably sweet. That’s because winemakers can choose to make dry wines even with grapes that have a lot of sugar. To find out what you’ve got, you simply have to ask—or find out by tasting the wine yourself. In general, though, the trend is for German wines to be pretty dry.

Grapes
Of the several white and red grapes grown in Germany, the greatest is Riesling, hands down. Riesling is the Lay's Potato Chip of wine: Once you taste one, you can't sip just once. It combines exceptional finesse and elegance with buckets of flavor—and razor’s edge acidity (Riesling can age for years).

Other important grapes for white wine are Müller-Thurgau and Sylvaner; and for red wine, Spätburgunder (Pinot Noir).

Regions
Germany makes wine in 13 different areas of the country. The four most important areas are Rheinhessen, Pfalz, Rheingau and Mosel-Saar-Ruwer. These produce the best German wines, most of it from Riesling.

The Rhein and the Mosel are rivers (the Saar and the Ruwer are tributaries of the Mosel). Rivers help German wines in two ways: they modulate temperature and they provide slopes, on which German vines better can angle for sunlight.

Rhein & Mosel
Rhein wines, by and large, come in brown bottles; Mosel wines, in green ones. Rhein wines, by and large, are fuller bodied than Mosels that, for their part, have greater acidity and lower alcohol than Rhein wines.

Mosels taste like green apples, pears, minerals and citrus (lemon, lime, orange). Rheins taste like peaches, apricots, minerals and apple pie.

Food
Riesling is the most food-flexible white wine made today. The best overall wine for food combines low alcohol, high acidity, pure fruit flavor and just a smidgeon of sweetness. That is a definition of Riesling.

Sure, Riesling isn’t the best match for grilled steak or a pot roast, but Riesling can accompany—and make more delicious—a broader range of food preparations than any other wine. Except for red meat dishes and firm, aged cheeses—foods better served by red wine—it can be Riesling for dinner tonight.