Germany

Germany has 21 722 ha (53 676 acres) of Riesling vines. More than any other country in the world. Germany is touted as Riesling's "home". Indeed, it produces some of the finest wines from the Riesling grape. Germany's relatively cool climate suits Riesling well. And because the Germans have grown Riesling for a very, very long time, there are many old Riesling vines (Alte Reben) on teutonic vineyards. Their root systems have been established over decades, drawing in the very essence of each vineyard's terroir.

Riesling in Germany

Riesling dominates the vineyards of Germany. Müller-Thurgau is the second most widely grown grape, but it has clearly fallen out of favor during the past 30 years when it lost almost half of the acreage it had in 1979. Riesling is and always will be Germany's grape variety.

The German wine categories

Germany has four basic wine categories. The top quality category Prädikatswein is furthermore divided into six sub-categories. In between, additional categories have been injected over time to insure that only very, very few people understand German wine.

Qualitätswein bestimmter Anbaugebiete (Q.b.A)

• largest group of German wine
• wine has to be from one of Germany's 13 designated wine regions
• can be chaptalized

Germany has some of the steepest vineyards in the world, with soils ranging from sandy loam to slate and granite. Yet the German wine law stubbornly denies to acknowledge those terroirs and instead builds its wine quality hierarchy based on the ripeness levels of the grapes at harvest.

The degree of maturity is assessed by measuring the sugar level in the grape an is expressed as the must weight in Oechsle degrees. The minimum must weight is different for each grape variety and growing region.