Wset - Germany

Question 1

What’s the climate like in Germany?
and how does it affect the grape?

Answer 1

Cool continental climate, with all the associated problems, although the vineyards in the far south in Baden are noticeable warmer.
Summers can be wet; however, the rain generally declines in autumn during the final stage of ripening.
the long, cool ripening period gives the grape time to reach suger ripeness while retaining their acidity.

Question 2

Where are the best sites located (topographicly) ?

Answer 2

the best sites are found on steep and often stony slopes with a southerly aspect, which amcimise the available heat and sunlight.

Question 3

On the best sites on steep slopes, how’s the vine pruned and harvested?

Answer 3

These vineyards have to be worked by hand and on the most extreme slopes equipment has to be manoeuved into place by winches.
On these slopes, vines are head-pruned, individually staked and the canes tied in at the top of the stake to maximise grape exposure to light and circulation of air.

Question 4

Which is the most widely planted grape variety in Germany?

Answer 4

Riesling

Question 5

What’s the characteristics for a Riesling?

Answer 5

It can vary from delicate and floral to a richer peachy fruit character.
It can vary from bone dry to lusciously sweet.
the dry ones often range from light and fruit to very concentrates and intense.

Question 6

What’s the difference between a qulitätswein and a prädikatswein?

Answer 6

A Qualitätswein is the category for German PDO wines. It must come from one of the 13 designated “winegrowing” areas. The area must appear on the label.
Prädikatswein on the other hand is a category within Qualitätswein. Generally these wines must be made from grapes with higher must weight (suger levels) than is required for other Qualitätswein.

Question 7

Which are the 6 levels within the Prädikätswein?
And what’s the wine style for each?

Answer 7

Kabinett - dry to medium sweet
Spätlese - dry to medium sweet
Auslese - dry to sweet
Beerenauslese (TA) - sweet only
Eiswein - sweet only
Trockenbeerenauslese (TBA) - sweet only

Question 8

Which specific term may the producer use to indicate the sweetness in their wines?

Answer 8

dry wines - trocken
off dry to medium - halbtrocken or feinherb(not legally defined)

Question 9

What’s the characteristics for a Riesling made in Kabinett style?

Answer 9

It will be light in body, with high acidity and flavours of green apple or citrus fruit often balanced with reseidual sweetness. The sweet style will have an alcohol level between 8-9% abv whereas drier styles can reach 12% abv.

Question 10

What does süssreserve mean?

Answer 10

When you add unfermented grape juice after fermentation to sweeten a wine.
This technique is possible to use for a Kabinett wine.

Question 11

Which method is used for the best sweet styles of Kabinett?

Answer 11

by stopping the fermentation early, before the yeast has converted all of the suger in the juice to alcohol. This achieves a better suger/acid balance

Question 12

What’s the characteristics for a Riesling made in Spätlese style?

Answer 12

They are made in the same way as Kabinett, but more concentrated, riper, a little more body, alcohol.
Citrus and stone fruit aromas (peach or apricot).

Question 13

What’s the characteristics for a Riesling made in Auslese style?

Answer 13

These wines are made from individually selected extra-ripe bunches of grapes. Whether dry or sweet, Auslese wines are richer and riper compared with Spätlese wines are from the same region and regardless of style noble rot can play an important part in the flavour profile of these wines.

Question 14

What’s the characteristics for a Riesling made in Beerenauslese and Trockenbeerenauslese style?

Answer 14

These wines are sweet and low in alcohol with flavours of honey, dried fruit, candied peel and flowers.

Question 15

How’s Eiswein made?

Answer 15

These are genuine rarities and are made infrequently. Importantly, noble rot is not always a key component of this style and the focus is rather on varietal purity.

Question 16

What’s the typical characteristics for a Eiswein?

Answer 16

the best of these wines achieve a very fine balance between acidity and sweetness. Winemakers seek to maintain varietal flavours, which can be accentuated by using carefully selected yeast, handling the juice with care and avoiding processes that could mask the flavours of the grape, such as mlf or new oak.

Question 17

Which other grape varieties other than Riesling can be found in Germany?

Answer 17

Müller-Thurgau (Rivaner)
Silvaner
Grauburgunder/Ruländer (Pinot gris)
Weisburgunder (Pinot Blanc)
Spätburgunder (Pinot Noir)
Dornfelder

Question 18

What is Müller-Thurgau a crossing between?

Answer 18

Riesling and Madeleine Royale

Question 19

What’s the characteristics for Müller-Thurgau?

Answer 19

not the same high levels of acidity as Rieling. It can produce an attractive floral and fruity wine. But rarely with high quality.

Question 20

Where’s Silvaner mostly grown? and in what style?

Answer 20

In Rheinhassen and Franken.
It is made in both dry and sweet style

Question 21

What the charcteristics for Silvaner?

Answer 21

It generally gives wines that are both less acidic and less overtlt fruity than Rieslinf and can sometimes have an earthy quality.

Question 22

Where does Spätburgunder thrive?
And what character does it normally have?

Answer 22

It thrives in warmer vinetard areas and if paricularly important in Pfalz and Baden.
Wines are dry and either relatively light and fruity or made in a more concentrated style that often includes oak aromas.

Question 23

What’s the characteristics of Dornfelder?

Answer 23

it produces particulary deeply coloured wines, but with a light body and fruity.

Question 24

Which is the only grape allowed for GG wines in Mosel?

Answer 24

Riesling

Question 25

In which area is the production concentrated in Mosel, and which three villages have an established reputation for top-quality wine?

Answer 25

In the Middle Mosel.
The best known villages are Piesport, Bernkastel and Wehlen

Question 26

How’s the Rieslings character from Piesport, Bernkastel and Wehlen?

Answer 26

lighter in body, lower in alc and higher in acidity compared to Rheingau, Rheinhessen and Pflaz
Floral and green fruit flavours are predominate.

Question 27

Where’s the best vineyards situated in Nahe?

Answer 27

on the banks of the river Nahe itself in the short section between the villages Schlossböckelheim and Bad Kreuznach.
These vineyrads are on steep south-facing slopes.

Question 28

Which is the most planted variety in Nahe? and what character does it have?

Answer 28

Riesling.
pronounced acidity, slightly riper fruit character here than in Mosel as the climate is warmer.

Question 29

How are the vineyards in Rheingau sitated?
and what factors will give the best ripening conditions?

Answer 29

on the slopes of the north bank of the River Rhine (in the west of the region) and the River Main (in the east) and have a southerly aspect. This, combined with the protection offered by the Taunus hills to the north, provides optional conditions for ripening

Question 30

Which two villages are surrounded by thet majority of vineyards in Rheingau?

Answer 30

Johannisberg and Rüdesheim

Question 31

Which grape variety dominates in Rheingau? and what character does it usually have in the west part?

Answer 31

Riesling dominates plantings and the majority of wines are made in a fry stule- The Rieslings have a medium to full-body and a distinct ripe peach character to their fruit flavour.
The humid condition caused by Rhine, gives some of the best Ba and TBA wines.

Question 32

Which village can you find to the east of the region Rheingau?
what character does the wine usually have?

Answer 32

Hochheim.
the riesling can be riper and fuller bodied due to a slightly warmer climate.

Question 33

Which grape varieties are the only ones allowed in a GG wine in Rheingau?

Answer 33

Riesling and Spätburgunder

Question 34

Which is the largest vine-growing region in Germany?
and which are the most widely planted grapes here?

Answer 34

Rheinhessen
Müller-Thurgau and Riesling
Dornfelder, Portugieser and Spätburgunder -30%

Question 35

What’s Rheinhessens reputation based on?

Answer 35

It was based on the steeply sloping vineyards on the west bank of the Rhine centred around the village of Nierstein.
These areas, often referred to as the Rheinterrasse, produces som of the fullest-bodied Riesling in Germany.

Question 36

Which region is the second largest in Germany?

Answer 36

Pfalz.

Question 37

How long is Pfalz? and what are the mountains that lie west of it called?

Answer 37

80 km stip north from the French border
and lie to the east of the Haardt Mountains, which are a continuation of the Vosges.

Question 38

What affect does the Haardt Mountains have on Pfalz?

Answer 38

It can be the friest of the German region and in very warm years the vines can suffer from water stress

Question 39

How much do the white and the black grape varieties make up in % of the total production?
and which grapes are the most widely planted?

Answer 39

White grapes: 60% - Riesling is the most widely planted variety, Müller-Thurgau is also widely grown, while plantings of Grauburgunder and Weisburgunder are graduallt increasing.
Black grapes : 40% - Dornfelder is the second most widely planed variety of either colour and there are significant plantings of Portugieser (for the local market) and Spätburgunder (which is gaining an international reputation.

Question 40

Which grapes can be used for a GG wine in Pfalz?

Answer 40

Rieling, Weisburgunder or Spätburgunder.

Question 41

Around which villages are the most established quality vineyards planted? And what is the area reffered to as?

Answer 41

Frost and Deidesheim
an area often reffered to as Mittelhaardt

Question 42

What style, grape and character of the wines in Mittelhaards?

Answer 42

Set on the seep slopes to the west of the villages, the vineyards here produce a rope, fuller-bodied style of Riesling.

The majority of wines are now made in the drier styles

Question 43

Which is the warmest and most southerly wine region in Germany?

Answer 43

Baden, third largest wine region

Question 44

In Baden, a third of the plantings are in the area between to villages, which?

Answer 44

Kaiserstuhl
Tuniberg

Question 45

Where can you find the best vineyards in Baden?
What do they grow there?

Answer 45

The best vineyards are on the south-facing slope of the Kaiserstuhl (an extinct volcano) and make the most of the avabulable warmth. This area has developed a reputation for top-quality Spätburgunder

Question 46

Which id the most widely planted variety in Baden?

Answer 46

Spätburgunder.
some: Müller-Thurgau, Grauburgunder, Weisburgunder and than Riesling.

Question 47

Which grapes are allowed for a GG wine from Baden?

Answer 47

a range of white and black varieties.

Question 48

Which style of wine dominates in Franken?

Answer 48

white winemaking.

Question 49

Which are the most widely planted grape varieties in Franken?

Answer 49

Silvaner!
but also spätburgunder.

Question 50

Silvaner can be a tricky grape, why?

Answer 50

the early flowering and ripening is susceptible to frost damage, and is planred in the warmest sites.
Consequently, Silvaner is able to achieve a concentration that is rarely achieved elsewhere in Germany.

Question 51

Where are the best wines produced in Franken?
and what’s it’s character?

Answer 51

on the south-facing slopes around Würzburg.
They are dry with a richness on the palate and often an earthy quality

Question 52

Which grapes are allowed for a GG wine from Franken?

Answer 52

Silvaner, Rielsing, Weisburgunder, or Spätburgunder

Question 53

In 2021, a geographic hierarchy was introduced for Qualitätswein (including Prädikätswein). Whatäs the new legislations?

Answer 53

Wines may either be lavelled with a winefrowinf area (largest), region, village or single vineyard.
Where a wine comes from a region, the term ‘Region’ must appear on the wine label.
For village wines, the name of the village simply appear on the label, whereas single-vinetard wines can be identified by the appearance of both the village and the vineyard name appearing on the lavel.

Question 54

Verband Deutscher Prädikatsweingüter

Answer 54

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