Germany - It's not all Blue Nun you know!

I've been at reserve nearly a year now, so it's about time I had a proper rant about German wines. I'm a huge fan of their varied but always delicious Rieslings which after all, in the 19th Century, the wines were more sought after (and more expensive) than the top Bordeaux Chateaux.

First of all, lets dispel a myth. These wines are not all sweet. Sure, some of the finest sweet wines in the world are German Rieslings, but there a huge number of excellent dry wines out there. All you need to do is avoid the artificially "medium" styles of Liebfraumilch and Piesporter (which are responsible for Germany's bad reputation), which lack the acidity to balance the sugar, and you'll be on to a winner!

I'm going to deal almost exclusively with one grape here. Germany does grow other white varieties such as Pinot Gris, Sylvaner and Muller Thurgau, and even makes some fine red wines from Pinot Noir (or Spatburgunder as the locals like to call it) but the finest wine is made with the aristocratic Riesling.

The trick to picking a good German Riesling (apart from asking me, of course), is in understanding what the label says. Fortunately, the typically efficient Germans tend to tell you exactly what is in the bottle on the label. Unfortunately, this information is usually in German, so here are a few pointers….

German wine has quite a complicated classification system, but it's only really worth worrying about the top two levels… Qualitatswein bestimme Anbaugebeite (which usually appears as QbA) is the equivalent of the French 'Appellation Controlee', indicating a wine which comes from a specific area. These wines can vary hugely in quality, and I'd avoid most of them unless you know the producer. A couple to look out for are Ernst Loosen (who makes a huge range of wines, from top quality Qmp to experimental QbAs), Heymann-Lowenstein and Van Volxem who has reinvigorated some neglected but top quality 19th century vineyards.

The top level, Qualitatswein mit Pradikat (QmP) indicates not only wine from a given area, but also a designated level of 'ripeness'. These wines (which are of the best quality only) are split into the following categories, based on the ripeness of the grape when picked (essentially the SWEETNESS of the final wine)…..

Kabinett - the earliest picked and driest wines
Spatlese - late harvested, off-dry wines (some good dry Spatleses exist too)
Auslese - very late harvested, medium wines
Beerenauslese - very late harvested sweet wines, affected by 'noble rot'
Trockenbeerenauslese - very late harvestyed sweet wines heavily affected by noble rot
Eiswein - very sweet wines made from frozen grapes.

'Noble rot' is a naturally occuring fungus which in the right conditions can cause the grape to shrivel, and creates intensly sweet and complex wine.

Confused? Don't worry - just think of any thing with the word 'Auslese' in as a pudding wine and you're half way there!

So now you understand those terms, let's have a look at a typical German wine label.

Take a look at the label at the top of this page.

The important words appear under the vintage, the first two telling us where the wine comes from - first the village, and then the vineyard. It takes a lot of time and effort to learn all the German village and vineyard names, so don't bother - worry about the third and fourth words. The third is the grape name 'Riesling' and the fourth tells us which of the above sweetness categories the wine falls into.

So, we can quickly see that this wine comes from the Brucke vineyard in the village of Oberhause, and that it is a medium wine made with the Riesling grape.

Here are some more to practise on… the interpretations are at the end of this piece!

Germany has a number of different wine regions, the best being in the South West around the Rhine and its tributaries, each of which produces wines of slightly different character. The key areas to remember are:

Mosel-Saar-Ruwer consists of vineyards planted on the steep slopes of the three rivers, the best coming from the Mosel valley. Slate soils give excellent minerality, and the wines have noticeably floral aromas

Rheingau and the Rheinessen. Even more steeply sloped riverbank vineyards (theses steep banks are essential to prolong sunshine hours and ripen the grapes), where the wines tend to be more steely and full bodied.

So there you have it, a potted guide to one of my favourite wine countries! Incidentally, Austria uses the same classification system too!

Label Answers: 1. A very sweet wine madefrom frozen Riesling grapes from the Laurentiusberg vineyard in Waldrach
2. Also a very sweet wine made from frozen Riesling grapes, but this time from the Lay vineyard in Bernkastle