Wine Region Germany

Hardly any other country is as renowned and beloved worldwide for its white wines as Germany. It is above all the countless facets of Riesling across the different wine regions—as well as the dry Große Gewächse and the delicately sweet Prädikatsweine—that generate international excitement. Germany has also re-established itself at the top tier of sparkling wine production with its artisanal Winzersekt. And red wines are increasingly gaining global attention as well. It is the blend of tradition and innovation that makes German wines so compelling around the world. Added to this is the fact that Germany is one of the few countries currently benefiting from climate change, as the conditions for viticulture have become almost ideal.

Just 15 years ago, many winegrowing regions were simply too cool to reliably achieve physiological ripeness in red grapes. Today, even thick-skinned Syrah is being cultivated. Riesling, in particular, now ripens optimally across all regions—though in Baden, the country’s warmest area, it is in some cases already becoming too warm for Germany’s flagship variety. Overall, however, Germany still has a cool-continental climate, with warm summers and cold winters. With the exception of two enclaves in the east, winegrowing primarily takes place in the southwest, particularly along rivers such as the Rhine, Main, Moselle (including the Saar and Ruwer tributaries), and the Nahe. These rivers shape viticulture through their moderating and season-extending influences, much like the steep vineyard slopes found throughout the region.

It is especially the wines from these steep-slope vineyards that enjoy high international demand. Across 103,000 hectares of vineyard land, winemakers in Germany’s 13 wine regions produce approximately 8.9 million hectolitres of wine each year. Around one million hectolitres are exported, with the United States the largest market (nearly 150,000 hectolitres). Dutch consumers drink around 144,000 hectolitres, and Polish consumers 108,000 hectolitres of German wine annually. However, even more significant than exports is Germany’s wine import market—here the country ranks second worldwide. Wines from Italy (4.8 million hectolitres), Spain (3.7 million hectolitres), and France (1.8 million hectolitres) are particularly popular among German consumers.

Riesling is Germany’s quintessential native grape variety, thriving on more than 24,400 hectares. Far behind in second place is Spätburgunder (Pinot Noir) with 11,500 hectares—though it is not considered indigenous to Germany. Truly autochthonous, however, is Müller-Thurgau, which ranks third with nearly 11,000 hectares under vine. Other noteworthy native varieties include Kerner, Bacchus, Regent, Dornfelder, and Portugieser. If you are wondering why Silvaner is missing from this list, there is a small surprise: although this white grape is strongly associated with Franconia—and, to some extent, Rheinhessen—it originally comes from Austria, where it was displaced by Grüner Veltliner when Lenz Moser introduced the high-training system.

With the exception of Franconia, where Silvaner plays a central role, and regions such as the Ahr and Baden, which are renowned for Spätburgunder, the remaining German wine regions are overwhelmingly dominated by Riesling—offering an astonishing breadth of styles.

Among these are the Prädikatsweine. The Mosel is the heartland of the Kabinett category, though other regions also produce outstanding Riesling Kabinetts with an enchanting interplay of sweetness and acidity. Even more exciting are the Beerenauslese, Trockenbeerenauslese, and Eiswein styles—true rarities of German winemaking. In stark contrast to these sweet wines stand the Großen Gewächse of the VDP estates, which are produced exclusively in a dry style. They represent the most serious, complex, and profound expression of German Riesling.

Equally noteworthy today are Germany’s Spätburgunder (Pinot Noir) wines, which over the past decades have developed a distinctive and unmistakable style. What unites them is a consistent elegance that is increasingly recognized internationally. It is therefore no surprise that Spätburgunder is now cultivated successfully in all German winegrowing regions.

Viticulture in Germany has a centuries-old tradition. The first major quality initiative across the country’s vineyards can be traced back to Charlemagne, who in the early 9th century encouraged the cultivation of grape varieties known to produce superior wines. Equally legendary is the tale of the Spätlesereiter (the “late harvest rider”), which marked the beginning of the Prädikatswein success story in the Rheingau in the 18th century. This legend, in turn, is inseparably tied to the rise of Riesling. Yet there was a period when German winegrowers rested a little too comfortably on the grape’s international success.

Mechanised vineyard work and increasingly modern cellar technology led to wines that, particularly in the 1980s, became stylistically rather uniform. This coincided with a wave of off-dry and semi-sweet wines that were especially popular with consumers at the time. It was only after the Austrian wine scandal in the mid-1980s that a sense of renewed purpose swept through the German wine landscape. Several estates returned to hand-harvesting, began selecting grapes more rigorously, and allowed fermentations to proceed spontaneously with vineyard yeasts. Organic and sustainable farming practices also began to take hold—an approach embraced today by an increasing number of estates.

Over the past 20 years, German producers have revived their tradition of crafting distinctive wines that reflect their specific terroirs. At the same time, an impressive spirit of experimentation has emerged, often pushing boundaries—for example, Riesling matured in small oak barrels or red wines aged in new barriques.

Since the 1980s, German wines have also become significantly drier once again, although there is now a renewed movement favouring a touch of residual sweetness—primarily in quality wines rather than in entry-level Prädikatsweine. And then there is the VDP, the driving force behind Germany’s finest dry wines, many of which can age for decades. These are the Große Gewächse (GG). The concept—wines of great stature that express their terroir with precision and age gracefully—has since taken root beyond the VDP and is now reflected in the reformed German wine law. Debate, however, continues over whether such a “great wine” can or should be made from basic varieties such as Müller-Thurgau.