08/06/08 German Wines

Welcome to Vine to Wine this is your host Linda Moran. On today's program we are going to help you to understand German Riesling. To me summer with those nice warm sultry days and evenings is when I find myself dipping into the white wines of my cellar and chilling down some great German Riesling. To understand German wines, and the words used to describe them, you must first understand that German wine is defined by ripeness and the levels of sugar at the time the grapes are harvested. The most widely cultivated grape in Germany and the wine it is most famous for is Riesling  and we will find the wines described in six major categories of sweetness. So, in descending order from less sugar to the most sugar would be Kabinett spelled with a K, Spatlese, Auslese, Beerenauslese, Eiswein and Trockenbeerenauslese. Knowing this really helps you to choose a wine. Another technique the German's employ to make some great wines is to ferment a batch of wine to a very dry finish, this wine will have the term trocken before the style, meaning dry. The wine maker can then take a portion of that same batch of wine and add unfermented grape juice from the same harvest and sweeten the wine up just a little. This wine is call halbtrocken or half dry. It's a semi dry and very pleasant wine. As a bonus most German wines are lower in alcohol and they are so refreshing during the summer. Remember to send your wine questions to Linda at vine to wine dot net and thanks for joining me on today's Vine to Wine.