The best German wines: classification, features and types

2024 Author: Isabella Gilson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:14

Approximately 102,000 hectares in Germany are occupied by vineyards. This is only 1/10 of the vineyard area in Western European countries such as Spain, Italy and France.

History of German winemaking

In Germany, winemaking is developing along the Rhine River, in the southwest of the country. The wine-making craft in this area is one of the most ancient. The oldest farms arose in the days of the Roman Empire. The Romans planted the first vineyards along the Moselle around the 1st century AD. Ancient Roman historians, mentioning in their writings the wine created by the inhabitants of those lands, speak of it very unflatteringly. When the Roman Empire ceased to exist, winemaking continued in Germany.

In the Middle Ages, vineyards occupied more than three hundred thousand hectares. Undoubtedly, a great merit belongs to the monasteries. The monks diligently engaged in viticulture and winemaking, making wine for their own needs and taking care of the spread of winemaking to the north of the country. Now the majority of German wine production is located inRhineland-Palatinate region. There are six wine regions out of thirteen. Thanks to their hard work, painstaking and pedantry - the qualities inherent in this nation, German winemakers have managed to achieve great success in their business.

Secrets of German winemaking

One of the advantages of German winemaking is the long growing season, during which the grapes have time to ripen. Since ancient times, German winemakers prefer not to grow red grape varieties, which are too thermophilic, but white ones, which are considered the most viable.

Wine production

Germany produces about nine million hectoliters of wine annually. That's roughly 1.2 billion bottles. Thus, it is the eighth wine-producing country in the world. Two-thirds of the total production is white wine.

Germany has received a dual reputation in the global wine market. Some consumers associate German wine with fine white wine. And others see German winemakers as producers of semi-sweet, cheap drinks.

Most popular wines

White semi-sweet German wine is known all over the world. The price can vary greatly depending on its age and manufacturer. "Milk of a Beloved Woman" is a wine from Germany that is widely known and popular in our country. Its delicate fruity taste, as well as the exquisite aroma of flowers from German fields, have not yet been able torepeat in any other country. Tasting the drink, you can feel a distinct apricot and honey hue, the smell of fruits of exotic origin and white fruits. This wine has a well balanced taste. It is sweet in moderation and has subtle spicy sour notes. White semi-sweet wines in Germany are loved and appreciated by people throughout the country.

Varieties permitted by law

German wine law provides for the responsibility of the governments of the federal states for compiling lists that indicate the grape varieties allowed for cultivation and use in making wine. It also includes varieties that are allowed exclusively for experimental selective cultivation.

How wines are classified

Classification of German wines sometimes confuses some lovers of this drink. This is especially true for those consumers who do not speak German.

Classification of noble drinks:

1. Deutscher Tafelwein is a German table wine. There are few prescriptions for its production. The grapes for this wine come from different places. Deutscher Tafelwein is not intended for export and is only sold in Germany.
2. Deutscher Landwein - German local wine.

3. Qualitätswein bestimmter Anbaugebiete - quality wine from the specified area. During its production, the addition of sugar is allowed to increase the percentage of alcohol in the final product. The wine must be made from a permitted grape variety grown in the same region. Mixing is strictly prohibited.

   

4. Prädikatswein is a quality wine made from selected grapes that have reached a special stage of ripeness. This is the most valuable wine in Germany. It is characterized by exquisite taste. It also has a higher proportion of grape must.

There are 6 gradations of quality wines:

• Kabinett is a category of unsweetened natural quality wines. The raw material for their manufacture is grapes, which were harvested a few days after harvest for Qualitätswein bestimmter Anbaugebiete.
• Spätlese - late collection. Produced from berries that were picked two weeks after the grape harvest for Kabinett.
• Auslese - choice. This wine is made in Germany from hand-selected late-harvest grapes with a high degree of maturity. Therefore, these wines contain more sugar.
• Beerenauslese - selected berries. These wines are made from grapes that are already overripe and infected with moisture-removing fungi from the genus Botrytis. Berries, in fact, begin to turn into raisins, their sugar content reaches 29%. Sweet dessert wines are made from these grapes.
• Eiswein - ice wine. It is made from berries that have frozen on the vine and have reached a certain sweetness. The grapes are harvested and pressed while frozen. Thanks to the fact that water is turned into ice, German wine producers achieve higher sugar content in such wines.
• Trockenbeerenauslese - made from dried selected berries. This groupconcentrated, sweet and very expensive wines. The sugar content of the grapes must exceed 36%.

Blackberry wine

Fruit wine lovers are quite flattering about Germany's blackberry wine. It is produced in Bavaria. This wine is sweet, but does not give the impression that there is too much sugar in the composition and it is the dominant ingredient. The smell of blackberry wine is not alcoholic, but berry. It has a maroon color. The taste is pleasantly light, fruity, reminiscent of house wine. Alcohol contains only 8.5%.

The meaning of wine glasses

Wine glasses are very important in Germany. Conventionally, they are divided into three components: a bowl, a leg and a stand. The height of the legs and the diameter of the stand do not play a special role, they are rather design elements. The diameter, shape and size of the bowl are important parameters that affect the bouquet, aftertaste, taste and balance of wines. This was first established over half a century ago by Professor K. J. Riedel.

The shape and size of the bowl of the glass affects the level of phenols in the drink. It is phenolic compounds that determine the taste of wine and its aromatic bouquet. A clear relationship can be observed: the dryness of the drink is more pronounced if the evaporation surface is larger. Upon contact with air, the conversion of phenols to esters occurs instantly. This is how the real taste of wine is revealed. The larger the bowl of the glass and the smaller its upper part, the better it will convey the intensity and quality of taste. If the upper part of the bowl is narrow, and the middle part is wide, then the wine, being at the bottom, gives up its phenolicconnections in layers. They do not immediately fly out of the glass, but, due to mixing in the wide middle part, they create a kind of bouquet of taste and aroma.

Wine for the German

For a German, his own vineyard is much more desirable than an expensive car, and being a winemaker is many times more honorable than a businessman. Winemaking is considered the lot of intellectuals and philosophers, who have such an important quality as diligence and passion. To produce really good wine, you need to know such sciences as geology, chemistry, physics. In winemaking, everything must be taken into account: the features of the local relief, illumination, humidity, rainfall, methods and timing of harvesting. In addition, you should take into account the quality of the wood from which the barrel is made, the air temperature in the wine cellar.

German winemakers differ from winemakers of other countries in strict adherence to traditions, fanatical devotion to nature. For comparison, the French are prone to experiment, they boldly improvise, mix wines. And the Germans are based on the experience of their ancestors and obey the routine.

In 2001, Germany ceased to be called a beer nation, as that year, for the first time, German consumers spent more on wine than they had previously spent on beer. Now this figure is growing steadily. It is important to note that Germans prefer wine made in their homeland over imported drinks. German winemakers are happy to please their customers, thinking through all the little things.