More on German Wine

Welcome to Vine to Wine this is your host Linda Moran. A few weeks ago I talked about German Riesling and my love for Riesling in general. I confess I took classes in Germany and it was great.  On today’s program we are going to help you to understand 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 you 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  spelledwith a K, Spatlese, Auslese, Beerenauslese, Eiswein and Trockenbeerenauslese. Knowing that really helps. A 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 meaning dry, before the style. 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. 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.