Germany

Germany has accumulated a bad reputation for overly sweet, mass produced and mediocre wines over the last 20 years. However, Germany is the worlds number one producer of exceptional Riesling wines. Germanys chief grape is the Riesling but other varieties include the Scheurebe, the Ruländer, the Silvaner, the Gewürztraminer and the Weissburgunder for white wines as well as the red wine grapes of Spätburgunder, Dornfelder, Portugieser and Trollinger. Most grape production is near and around rivers such as the Rhine and Mosel in order to take advantage of soil rich in minerals and slate. The German classification system involves Tafelwein, a general label for many table wines, Landwein, a slightly better but still not high quality label, Qualitätswein bestimmter Anbaugebiete (QbA), the first level of quality wines, and the Qualitätswein mit Prädikat (QmP), the most superb wines available. This highest level has 6 more levels of distinction that involve the increasing levels of sugar content. These range from the Kabinett, a dry a low alcohol content wine, the Spatlese, Auslese, Beerenauslese, Trockenbeerenauslese, and the Eiswein, the sweetest of them all.