Germany

White Wine Guru
With some of the steepest and northernmost vineyards in the world, as well as the coolest climate, Germany does not stand out as the ideal growing region for grapes. And yet, the country is famous for producing some of the best white wines in the world, mainly Riesling. Delicate, age-worthy, intense and elegant are the typical descriptions for wines from Germany. Note that “sweet” is not a common descriptor because the idea that most German wines are sweet is just not so. More recently, the country is exporting value wines that are easy to drink, extremely food friendly and, luckily for some, containing labels that are easier to read!

The classification system of Germany is somewhat confusing. Then again, which countries are not? Wines are put into quality categories based on their ripeness level at harvest. Like the rest of the old world, there's some hierarchy to it all. The categories (that do not base on ripeness level) are: Tafelwien (table wine), Landwein (land wine, similar to France's Vin de Pays) and the first “Q” level. The next level up from Landwien, QbA wines are easy-drinking and inexpensive – the only requirement being that the wine must come from one of Germany's thirteen official wine growing regions. The final level is QmP, which is the strictest level of German wines. The qualification consists of levels, based on ripeness, which may help you in picking out the wines and understanding how they might taste.

Here are a few definitions to help in picking out a German QmP wine:

Okay, so Trocken means dry in German and yet this wine is the sweetest of them all – that's because the trocken here describes the dried-out berries that make the wine. So now you're taking the grapes of beerenauslese level and drying them out, giving the wine a more intense, rich, lusciousness. These wines are rare, expensive and completely mind-blowing in intensity. Only made in the best years.