Almost a month ago I went on a tour of German wine regions. When I decided to do a wine tour of Germany I had some vague expectations, mainly a lot of Riesling of good quality of various levels of sweetness with a few additional varietals tossed in. With a full week of appointments planned, my trip of German wine regions made me into a believer, supporter and promoter of German wines.

Cabernet Sauvignon is often called the best varietal for showcasing terroir. I disagree–Riesling has the unique ability to show how much the vines are affected by small changes in terroir. It’s amazing to be presented with wines from different vineyards and taste the difference between a blue, blue-gray or red slate soil.

The difference in the Pradikat levels, QmP sweetness, of Kabinett, Spatlese, Auslese, etc. is not what I had expected. It is not just an increase in sweetness levels, but rather, an increase in complexity, and riper more tropical flavors and aromas. My previous perception was smaller steps between each level, it is now large steps up in quality, more along the line of the difference between a reserva and non-reserva in Italian wines.

The style of winemaking is to have as minimal of an impact on wine as possible. They want to showcase the fruit characteristics created by nature, not as manipulated by the winemaker. Everyone has switched to stainless steel fermentation tanks and very few are still using old casks for aging. Those winemakers still using casks are only using them for a select few specific wines.

The quality of the wines has increased considerably; unfortunately in the US most of what we still see is mass market and lower quality. The higher quality movement has been led by the VDP through dramatically lower yields, hand harvesting, and working with classified vineyards. In most regions the VDP is not part of wine law, but rather an association wineries can join if they agree to meet the quality levels. If you have not tried an Erstes Gewächs, Erste Lage, or Grosses Gewächs wine, I highly encourage you to run, not walk, to the nearest wine shop with a knowledgeable staff. This is going to be a wine that you will most likely need to special order and expect to pay about $50 for a bottle, but these wines are worth every dollar. Quality wise, these are comparable to a Grand Cru from Bordeaux. Can’t afford to spend that much? Look for a wine with the VDP logo on it. The VDP website has more information.

The impact of the Flurbereinigung, the vineyard reconstruction that started in 1970s, and is just about finished, was the obvious everywhere we went. I saw a few sites along the Mosel where reconstruction has not been done. It is understandable why the reconstruction was necessary, but is disturbing to think of the impact of losing so many old vines and unique landscapes and of questionable soil replacement.

The vines have some extraordinary age of 100 plus years in some areas. These old vines do not look like old vines from Spain or California. Instead the German vine trunks are still fairly small, maybe only an inch or two around. It’s unbelievable seeing vines that have been around for over 100 years growing along cliffs where it is hard to believe a person is able to get close enough to the vine to harvest grapes, yet are able grow there! The other surprising fact is in the middle Mosel there are a number of areas with ungrafted vines; actually there are a number of such pockets all over Europe.

The ageability of German wines has been forgotten by most wine collectors. Due to the high acid levels, German Rieslings have amazing ability to age for a long time. The color intensifies to a more golden hue, the acidity is more mellow and the sweetness is reduced. Having tasted a 1982 Kabinett and a 1976 Spatlese I am now pondering the addition of several German wines to my personal aging cellar and looking for some German wines on auction.

Of the non-Riesling varieties, I found the Pinot Blanc to be outstanding and the Blanc de Noir, sparkling and non-sparkling, to be amazing. The only disappointment was with the Pinot Noir–overall I found them too high in alcohol which overwhelmed the palate and aromas on the wines.

High quality wine from the Mosel is very good, but the wines from other regions were just as unique and as high of quality. Start to look for unique wines from all the other regions of German, especially from the Nahe.

After spending a week of tasting almost all Riesling, I never got bored with Riesling and actually started looking for more to try once I got home. Between the amazing wine and the very welcoming winemakers, the good news and the bad news is I cannot wait to return to Germany to further my knowledge of German wines.

Wineries we visited:

Mosel
Dr. Loosen, Bernkastel
Clüsserath-Weiler, Trittenheim
Weingut St. Urbanshof, Leiwen

Nahe
Schäfer-Fröhlich, Bockenau
Krüger-Rumpf, Münster-Sarmsheim

Rheingau
Carl Ehrhard, Rüdesheim
Eser-Johannishof, Johannisberg

Rheinhessen
Valckenberg, Worms

Pfalz
v. Bassermann-Jordan Estate, Deisdeheim

Photos of the trip