Section II: Wine Regions of Europe Chapter 9: Germany

Introduction  Postwar, majority of German wine exported to the US of inferior wines of Liebfraumilch category.  Americans assumed that all German wines were slightly sweet whites of lower quality.  Labels hard to decipher  Actually, most German whites are dry or off-dry.  Currently, one-third of German wine production is red.  Just under 5% of world’s total wine production  Best wines are in the highest tiers of quality

German Wine - History  Viticulture brought by the Romans in the 1 st century  Until the 9 th century, vineyards concentrated on the west side of the Rhine River.  Christian monks moved eastward Built monasteries Planted and tended vineyards Kept fine wine-making alive during the Middle Ages Improved viticultural practices, which led to international trade Expansion in trade gave rise to the bourgeoisie, or middle class.

German Wine – History (cont.)  By late 1700s, governors, growers and merchants establish a system of regulations Set quality standards for wine Simplified wine naming Emphasis on planting noble varietals suited to the climate  In the early 19th century, wine market opens up Railroads expand Internal customs and tariffs between France and German states disappear Competition from wines of other regions First designations of higher quality wines

German Wine – History (19 th century cont.)  Introduction to dessert wines  Oechsle system measures sugar levels, grape ripeness  1892, first national wine law passed  Small neighboring landowners formed cooperatives  Progression into international wine market

German Wine – History (cont.)  Major set backs Pests and mildew destroyed region in 1880s World War I and II Decimated economy, culture, labor supply and export market 1960s-1970s, increased demand for slightly sweet and very affordable Liebfraumilch Weakening quality controls 1980s, US demand dropped  Turnaround in the 21st century German producers putting more emphasis on quality wines US responding favorably to quality Riesling wines

Wine Laws  Original national Wine Law of 1892 Defined boundaries of major regions Specified winemaking practices that were forbidden  Wine Law of 1930 Refined definition of “quality wine” Levels of quality were outlined Certain winemaking practices were abolished.  Wine Law of 1971  Greatly simplified previous systems  Basis for producing and labeling German wines ever since

W INE C ATEGORIES  Tafelwein Table wine or ordinary wine  Landwein Regional wine  Qualitätswein bestimmter Anbaugebiet (often written as QbA) Quality wine  Qualitätswein mit Prädikat (also written as QmP) Quality wine with designation

Tafelwein  Table wine  Few, if any, standards  Consumed locally, rarely exported  Can have imported grapes blended in  One of four main regions must appear on the label Mosel und Rhein Bayern Neckar Oberrhein

Landwein  Parallel’s Frances vin de pays designation  Rarely used  Assumed higher quality than Tafelwein  Some growing guidelines  One of the 21 Landwein regions must appear on the label

Q UALITÄTSWEIN BESTIMMTER A NBAUGEBIET  “Quality wine from a specified geographic location”  Lower level of Germany’s quality wine production  Usually encompasses the largest percentage of German production.  Standards of quality must be met.  Grapes must be grown in one of 13 approved regions.  Chapitalization (adding natural sugars) is allowed at this level.

Q UALITÄTSWEIN MIT P RÄDIKAT  “Quality wine with designation”  Highest category of classified wines in Germany  Signifies the geographic location where the grapes were grown and their level of ripeness at harvest  The name of the wine has at least three words in it: the village, the vineyard and the Prädikat.  No chapitalization of wines is allowed at this level.  Since 2007, term shortened to Prädikatwein on labels

S IX C ATEGORIES O F P RÄDIKAT  Kabinett: lightest and the driest of the Prädikat wines Can be matched to a wide variety of foods Make excellent aperitifs  Spätlese: slightly off-dry wine Sugar is usually detectable, but the acidity is still fresh enough that the impression is not one of “sweetness.” Match with foods that are either very spicy, tartly acidic or have a lot of fruit  Auslese: decidedly off-dry wine Nicely balanced with clean acidity to hold up the ripe fruit flavors and residual sugar Nice as aperitifs Can be matched to crab meat, lobster or pâté.

S IX C ATEGORIES O F P RÄDIKAT ( CONT.)  The last three designations fall into the category of dessert wines and are truly sweet. Beerenauslese Eiswein Trockenbeerenauslese

Beerenauslese  “Selected berries”  Grapes with high levels of sugar and some botrytis (noble rot)  Wines are gold in color, incredibly rich and ripe flavor  Risky to make and labor-intensive to produce  Very expensive  In some drier years, noble rot does not occur and wine cannot be made at all.

Eiswein  “Ice wine”  Richly sweet, but not fully botrytized  Grapes are picked while still frozen.  Reflects varietal flavors more clearly

Trockenbeerenauslese  “Selected dried berries”  Picked in late autumn or early December  Fully infected with botrytis, shriveled on the vine, water of the grape evaporates  Deep golden color, honeyed nose redolent of dried apricots and nuances of the varietal with rich deep raisiny flavors.  Quantities always limited. In some years, cannot be produced due to a lack of the boytritis.  Very expensive to compensate producers’ risk

Reading the Labels  Within the QbA level, the geographic designation gets smaller and more specific.  At the Prädikat level, there is the added designation of quality. Tells you exactly where the grapes were grown Gives you an idea of the character of the wine since the terroir of each Bereich and village is unique Indicates where the wine falls on the stylistic spectrum from very dry to very sweet

Revision to the Wine Laws  The Wine Law of 1971 Winemakers wanted to indicate to the buyer that their wines were not in the traditional off-dry styles, but were still Qualitätswein. Government approved use of labeling terms for dry and half-dry.  Classic and Selection wine terminology in 2001

Trade Organizations  Charta Wines Dedicated to producing only the very highest quality wines that are typical of their region Promotes the wines from their estates as the best from the Rheingau  Verband Deutscher Prädikatsweingüter (VDP) Dedicated to high-quality wines that “reflect the distinct character of their German origin” Committed to the traditional style of German wines and to maintaining the Prädikat system

Climate  One of the northernmost fine wine regions in the world.  Heavily continental climate  The Rhein and its many tributaries provide a moderating influence on the climate, reflecting heat and light back onto the vines.  The steepness of the slopes allows vines to capture as much sun as possible.  It is estimated that it takes three times as many man- hours to tend the vines on the steep terraced vineyards along Germany’s rivers than is the case for flat rolling terrain.  Because of this, Germany produces a very small percentage of the world’s wine.

Grape Varietals  Cool-climate grapes that thrive in Germany Riesling Müller-Thurgau Silvaner Pinot Noir  Two rare red grapes showing small increases: Dornfelder Portugieser

The Mosel  Romans cultivated wine grapes here 16 centuries ago.  Noted for the slate, here called Schieferton  Gives the best Mosel Rieslings minerality that offsets the natural fresh green apple aromas and flavors  Vineyards of the Mosel are divided into 5 subregions.  Throughout the Mosel there is an impressive commitment to quality and pride in heritage.

The Rheingau  The most commercially successful wine region of Germany  Except along the Main where the land is gentle and flat, the vineyards of the Rheingau are on steep sloping hills.  Overwhelmingly a white wine region, and the majority of the vineyards are planted to Riesling  Wines from the Rheingau are fuller, firmer, and more assertive than wines from the Mosel.

Rheinhessen  Mostly flat rolling agricultural land  Large region with different microclimates  Best vineyard sites are located on the eastern edge  There are over 400 individual vineyards in the Rheinhessen, very few of them of any merit.  Most of the grapes from small vineyards are sold to cooperatives Made into pleasant, inexpensive still wines or increasingly, into decent, affordable sparkling wine  One-third of all German exports come from here.

The Pfalz  Germany’s second largest wine region  Spring sets in early, and summers are long and warm.  For decades many of the bulk wines produced from these grapes were of mediocre quality  In the 1970s and 1980s the reputation of the Pfalz was for inexpensive, pleasant, but unexciting wines.  That is now changing with standards rising fast.

Other Regions  Ahr  Mittelrhein  Nahe  Baden  Hessische Bergstrasse  Württemberg  Franken  Saale-Unstrut and Sachsen