Section II: Wine Regions of Europe

1
Section II Wine Regions of Europe

• Chapter 9 Germany

2
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 worlds total wine production
• Best wines are in the highest tiers of quality

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German Wine - History

• Viticulture brought by the Romans in the 1st
  century
• Until the 9th 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.

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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

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German Wine History (19th 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

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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

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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

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Wine Categories

• 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

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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

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Landwein

• Parallels 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

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Qualitätswein bestimmter Anbaugebiet

• Quality wine from a specified geographic
  location
• Lower level of Germanys 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.

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Qualitätswein mit Prädikat

• 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

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Six Categories Of Prädikat

• 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.

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Six Categories Of Prädikat (cont.)

• The last three designations fall into the
  category of dessert wines and are truly sweet.
• Beerenauslese
• Eiswein
• Trockenbeerenauslese

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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.

16
Eiswein

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

17
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

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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

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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

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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

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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 Germanys rivers than is the case
  for flat rolling terrain.
• Because of this, Germany produces a very small
  percentage of the worlds wine.

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Grape Varietals

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

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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.

24
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.

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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.

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The Pfalz

• Germanys 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.

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Other Regions

• Ahr
• Mittelrhein
• Nahe
• Baden
• Hessische Bergstrasse
• Württemberg
• Franken
• Saale-Unstrut and Sachsen