Reviews of Germany

If you plan to visit Germany, you will probably be interested in the local beverages. If not, there would be no reason for you to try German wines, as their international reputation is not too good. Why is this so? Carry on reading!

So now for the wines of the wine-area of Rhine, Mosel an Nahe:

In the area of those three rivers (west/southwest of Frankfurt) the landscape is determinated by wine hills, wineries an wine-villages with wine-pubs. You can get the best German wines here - they do not have to hide behind French or Italian premium sorts. But - the cheapest and worst European wines are also grown in the Rhineland. So how can you distinguish between good and bad sorts of wine?

Of course, the locals know which sorts to avoid. There is for example the famous "Liebfrauenmilch". It tastes awfully sweet with no real flavour at all. In the supermarket it costs not more than 2-3 Euro (I think, the tax alone is 1.50) Drinking more than half a bottle gives you an awful headache. Why is it famous? Well, it's cheap.

There are some bad regional sorts as well. For example "Oppenheimer Krötenbrunnen". That sounds kind of interesting, like a local speciality. But it's the worst wine that is grown on the dark north sides of the worst hills around Oppenheim. Not even in Oppenheim. It's only bottled there.

You can differentiate between the wines by some highly scientific expressions printed on the label. From these you can see if it's only bottled or grown at it's provenience, if it is blended or pure, if the vine is seldom, valuable and expensive or if it is only ordinary mass production. But even I as a local do not know much about these things. I have easier methods to find out about a good wine. Here they are:

1. The price

Never ever buy the cheapest wine in a restaurant. A mid priced wine will taste way better and cause no headache. In a supermarket avoid wines from 2 up to 5 Euro. From 6 Euro you can be almost sure to buy something more or less good. There are exceptions, but normally you can take it as a rule: the more expensive, the better.

2. The classification

I call it classification. What I mean is, how sweet the wine is. The class is printed on the label: - "lieblich" or "lovely" means very sweet
- "halbtrocken" or "half dry" means a little bit sweet
- "trocken" or "dry" means not sweet but also not sour
- "brut" means not sweet, extremely dry. It is not used for wine but only for sparkling wine or for champagne
Most people prefer the dry wines - if they are good ones. A cheap dry wine is very sour and thus tastes horrible. Some like it sweeter and prefer "halbtrocken". If it is cheap it can be somewhere between sour and sweet. I would not recommend that either. The sweet wines (lieblich) can be very good. Usually they are not. To make it sweet is the only way to make a really bad wine at least drinkable. Those wines are often sold in supermarkets for 2 Euro or less, sometimes even in a tetra pack (paper package). If you get a good and more expensive dessert wine, it might be sweet and good.

3. To sample wines

If you have time, simply do not buy wine in a supermarket. Go to any winery and ask for an event called "Weinprobe", where they serve you samples of the different kinds of wines they grow. Sometimes you get food and all kinds of wine, sometimes only wine. Sometimes you will have to pay a small sum, sometimes it's for free (because they want to sell their wine to you afterwards, of course). In a "Weinprobe" you will never get a bad wine. They only present you the best they have. And that's really good!

Some time ago I read in a magazine that most of the bad German wine is being exported because it cannot be sold in Germany anymore. Most Germans spend more money in order to get better wine or, if they do not want to spend much, they buy the cheapest French or Italian wine, which is at least not sweet.

The best German wineries sell their good wine directly to regular customers, to hotels and to restaurants. That is why the good wine does never get to international markets and often not even to the local supermarkets.

A special tip that suits my personal taste: "Grauburgunder", translated it is "gray burgundy" is a very good vine. In Italy it is called "Pino grigio". The German sort is not so well known, but at least as good as the Italian.