Germany
German wine is produced in many parts of Germany, which due to the northerly location produces wines quite unlike any others in Europe, many of outstanding quality. Germany also has many of the most spectacular vineyards in the world which sometimes have wonderful poetic names. The Urziger Wurtzgarten (The Spice Garden of Urzig) literally falls down a cliff.
Arblaster & Clarke visit Germany generally once a year. We have featured a Mosel, Sarr & Ruwer walk which was superb and we hope to repeat. For 2010 our Alsace Walk ventures into Ihringen, Germany one day and in 2011 there will be a German tour covering the regions of the Mosel, Saar, Pfalz & Ahr.
The wines have historically been predominantly white, and the finest made from Riesling. Many wines have been sweet and low in alcohol and light in body. They are mostly ‘unoaked’, though many are fermented in barrel. The barrels are however extremely old. Perhaps the most distinctive characteristic of German wines is the high level of acidity, caused both by the lesser ripeness in a northerly climate and by the selection of grapes such as Resling which retain acidity even at high ripeness levels.
Historically many of the wines (other than late harvest wines) were probably dry (trocken), as techniques to stop fermentation did not exist. Recently much more German white wine is being made in the dry style again. Much of the wine sold in Germany is dry, of off dry, especially in restaurants. However most exports are still of sweet wines, particularly to the traditional export markets such as Great Britain.
It is difficult to talk of the country as a whole, because as well as being geographically diverse, there is such a gulf in practice between the top estates, (who we visit and whose wines we love) and the bulk production, stuff like Liebfraumilch and Michelsberg (which very much still exists, even though no-one talks about it).
The tragedy is that the top wines, which are not expensive, are so undervalued and misunderstood by wine drinkers around the world and even in Germany. The fault largely lies with the German Authorities who created names that sounded like the wonderful single vineyards and applied these to whole regions. Thus you have Piesporter Michelberg, an inferior wine coming from inferior vineyards, turnip fields and former marshes, somewhere in a whole region near the middle Mosel, and sounding JUST LIKE Piesporter Goldtropfchen. Which is a classic Riesling with a rich earthy character and a balancing bite from the impressive, steep, slate, south-facing riverside amphitheatre of vines that is the Goldtropfchen vineyard above the village of Piesport. (tr. The little golden drops of Piesport). If you buy Michelsberg, you have been deceived. However you can undeceive yourself by buying a bottle of Goldtropfchen!
Red wine has always been hard to produce in the German climate, and in the past was usually light coloured, closer to rosé or the red wines of Alsace. However recently there has been greatly increased demand for darker, richer red wines (often barrique aged) and produced from grapes such as Dornfelder and Spätburgunder, the German name for Pinot Noir. The German estates have obliged and some stunning Pinots are now made in Germany in parts of Baden, the Pfalz, the Ahr and other regions. Discovering top German Pinot Noir is for the wine lover a very, very pleasant surprise.
Many of the top wines in Germany are produced using biodynamic or organic farming in the vineyards and winemakers are almost universally focused and environmentally aware. They take grape growing very seriously and selectively harvest to produce a range of styles. Sometimes they make fantastic, extraordinary and wonderful sweet wines from nobly rotten or frozen grapes. (The so called Beerenauslese and Eiswein). These days, as we said earlier, they make a lot of drier wine for the table, and, where I suspect that their hearts lie, in in the ‘harmonious’ style, where a balance has been achieved between the acid, the fruit and the sweetness. These are wines for drinking.
Tasting is a serious business in Germany. German winemakers take the role of ‘host’ seriously. A lot of samples come out to illustrate points and show the difference in vineyards, and it all makes sense. In the Mosel and Saar at least, there is not that much spitting. The wines are almost low alcohol so there doesn’t seem much point. – And they say “drink me” and it would be churlish to say “No”’
Clear, 11C, Trier
Mosel, Saar, Ruwer & Ahr
1 - 5 October 2008
Mosel Vineyard Walk
10 - 16 September 2007
