An Introduction to Wine in Germany

Germany comprises 103,000 hectares of vineyards (1 hectare = 2.47 acres)—an area slightly smaller than Bordeaux and about half that of California. Crossed by the 50th parallel north, it stands as Europe's most northerly winegrowing country. Its cool climate historically favored cold-hardy white varieties along river valleys such as the Rhine, Mosel, Saar, Ruwer, Nahe, Main, and Neckar.

Today, Germany is the world's premier producer of Riesling, boasting over 24,000 hectares across its 13 distinct winegrowing regions (Weinanbaugebiete), including the Mosel, Rheingau, Rheinhessen, Nahe, and Pfalz. It is also the world's third-largest producer of Pinot Noir (Spätburgunder), which reaches distinctive expression in regions like the Ahr, Baden, Pfalz, and Franken. Silvaner remains a historic specialty in Franken, though more is planted in Rheinhessen, while Weißburgunder (Pinot Blanc) and Grauburgunder (Pinot Gris) are now ubiquitous throughout Germany's vineyards. Lemberger (Blaufränkisch), Trollinger (Schiava), and Kerner are regional specialties of Württemberg. Germany is so much more than Riesling when it comes to wine.

While German wine was once widely associated with sweetness, dry (trocken) wines now dominate production across nearly all regions. Only the Mosel produces more off-dry and sweet wine than dry, though Württemberg can sometimes sneakily produce good volumes of off-dry wine. Nevertheless, lightly sweet, low-alcohol Kabinett ("Kabi") remains a unique specialty, and Germany's noble sweet wines—including Spätlese, Auslese, Beerenauslese (BA), Trockenbeerenauslese (TBA), and Eiswein—rank among the world's finest.

Many top German wines come from roughly 2,500 independent, estate-based wineries called Weingut (plural: Weingüter). In 1971, a sweeping wine law tied quality rankings solely to natural grape ripeness and non-chaptalized production (Qualitätswein mit Prädikat), largely overlooking terroir while merging historic vineyards into large collective sites known as Großlagen. In response, leading producers in the Verband Deutscher Prädikatsweingüter (VDP)—an elite association of around 200 wineries whose origins date to the 1910 natural wine auctioneers—focused on restoring the primacy of Germany's historical vineyard sites.

While the ripeness-based Prädikat system persists, particularly in cool regions like the Mosel, most quality-minded German wineries now categorize production by geographic origin. This origin-based framework mirrors Burgundy, operating on the principle that smaller, more specific geographic origins signify higher quality. The VDP hierarchy structures production from VDP.Gutswein (estate) and VDP.Ortswein (village) up to VDP.Erste Lage (Premier Cru) and VDP.Grosse Lage (grand cru), designating top dry single-vineyard bottlings as Grosses Gewächs (GG). The origin pyramid is not exclusive to the VDP, however, and most non-VDP estates follow a similar approach sans the VDP-branding. This origin-centric model has permanently reshaped the German wine landscape and inspired official reforms to Germany's wine law, aligning Germany with European origin-based quality standards.

Wine in Germany aims to pull together all of Germany's distinct winegrowing regions, key grape varieties, and historic vineyard sites into a comprehensive reference for wine enthusiasts and professionals alike. It serves as a companion to the many previous English-language works on German wine which enthusiasts, including this author, have referenced for years, including Frank Schoonmaker's The Wines of Germany, Hugh Johnson's The Story of Wine, Ian Jamieson's German Wines, Stephen Brook's The Wines of Germany, and Anne Krebiehl MW's The Wines of Germany. Some of those books I read, re-read, both for my personal enjoyment and for my professional credentials and career in the wine trade. I hope you enjoy Wine in Germany as much as I've enjoyed writing it.