German Wine

As a wine country, Germany has a reputation internationally, with some consumers on the export markets associating Germany with the world's most elegant and aromatically pure white wines.

Among the former category, Germany's reputation is primarily based on its sweet wines and for being home to the Riesling grape variety, which at its best is used for aromatic, fruity and elegant white wines that range from very crisp and dry to well-balanced, sweet and of enormous aromatic concentration. While primarily a white wine country, red wine production has virtually exploded in the 1990s and early 2000s, primarily fuelled by domestic demand, and more than one-third of the German vineyard surface is now devoted to the cultivation of dark-skinned grape varieties, with Spatburgunder, the domestic name for Pinot Noir, in the lead.