Misconceptions of German Wine

I’ve discovered that German wines are perhaps the most misunderstood of all the wines in our wine program and in wine programs all over the world.

However, when talking to consumers about German wines, I often get the same reaction – it’s that knee-jerk response of, “I don’t like sweet wines”, and the conversation about German wine usually ends there. This shows a common misconception about German wines, but more interestingly, it displays a common misconception about all wines’ sugar content and the palate and our collective palettes. 

Balance is the key. Sugar is, in fact, quite common in finished wine. Sugar, alcohol and fruity flavors in wine are balanced by acid and tannin in wine and vice versa. This means that the higher the acidity and/or tannin, the higher the fruit flavors, alcohol and/or acid that is needed in order to balance the wine. Speaking generally, cold climates produce grapes with higher acid and lower potential alcohol (sugar). Warmer climates produce grapes with naturally lower levels of acidity but higher levels of potential alcohol (sugar).

Tannin is found more often in red wines than in whites since tannin comes from grape seeds, stems and skins as well as oak barrels. Red wines generally have more contact with these elements, so they usually have more tannin. A white wine produced in a colder climate will have high acidity and a little tannin to balance that acidity. Therefore, the balance needs to come from the sugar found in the finished wine. As long as that sugar is in balance with the other elements, the wine shouldn’t taste sweet, but rather it will taste complete, round and full versus thin and tart. Humans typically can’t discern the sweet flavor of sugar in wines with less than 5g/L of sugar.

To give an example of consumer thoughts about whether or not they like sweet wine, it’s worth looking at a large producer of “dry” wines. This producer is yellow tail. On their website, they list their Shiraz as having 2 grams of sugar in a 6-ounce glass. This equates to around 12g/L of sugar. This amount of sugar is considered off-dry (semi-sweet) since it’s more than 4g/L of sugar, known as the top end of the threshold for dry wines. Their Oaked Chardonnay has about 10.5g/L, and their Unoaked Chardonnay has almost 5g/L, still within the semi-sweet category of wine. The tannin from oak balances sugar, so it would make sense that a wine with oak versus the same wine without oak would need more sugar to feel balanced. However, this all means that a lot of consumers are out there drinking wines that are technically off-dry while wrinkling their noses at just that thought. 

Now, back to Germany – most likely, this view of German wines being sweet comes from the huge popularity over the last 30 or 40 years of some lower quality, mass produced wines such as Blue Nun, Liepfraumilch and the like. These wines were and are large production wines from lesser vineyards and lack any personality beyond that of a common soft drink. They are alcoholic, refreshing and inexpensive as well as sweet tasting. Not bad if you’re looking for that combination, but certainly not indicative of what is produced by some of the smaller, quality-minded producers who are interested in intensity and, above all else, balance.

German wine producers are now more than ever focusing their efforts on balanced wines that taste full and complete but not sweet. Germany is indeed a cold climate country, so it would make sense that in natural winemaking practices, the wines would have higher acidity and therefore the need for slightly elevated levels of natural sugar to make a wine that feels balanced, but not sweet.

There has also been a growing movement in some regions for winemakers who focus on the uniqueness of their vineyards, even creating systems for ranking their vineyards that have grand cru status vineyards similar to the systems used in France. The greatest sites being given grand cru status but also being made in styles that seem dry on the palate.

Unfortunately, there is not a unified push forward among German winemakers. The largest wineries are still content to export their cheap, sweet wines, which drive public perception of German wines on the whole, while the smaller winemakers remain divided among the best path forward. Part of this division comes from the varieties of the different regions. One set of laws based on grape ripeness applied to all the regions makes very little sense, but that is what officially exists among the VdP, which is the governing body for most quality German wine. The issue here is that the different regions in Germany can be remarkably different in climate, soil makeup and elevation. One area might be much colder than another area and will therefore produce wines with higher acidity, less fruit flavor and will therefore need higher sugar levels to feel balanced. Another region might be warmer and capable of growing grapes that have more ripe fruit flavors to balance the acidity and can therefore have less sugar in them to feel balanced on the palate.

One derivative of all of this is that there are groups of winemakers who are choosing to not belong to or conform to the general rules and seem to be taking a page from Tuscany’s playbook and simply producing excellent wines outside the VdP or other governing body’s rules – essentially producing “super-German” wines that are excellent in quality and not confined to the rules of the VdP or other governing bodies, but these groups are not unified either. There is no international marketing effort from them either, so public perception will continue to remain geared toward what is more often seen in stores, and that, as we’ve discussed, is not the upper echelon of quality or balance.

This all being said, Blackberry Farm and many sommeliers at other restaurants and stores are huge proponents of high quality Riesling produced by small wineries. These wines can be stunning. Their high acid can be exhilarating, and they are also some of the most food-friendly wines you are likely to run across. The future for Riesling and German wine is bright as long as there are small producers focused on quality and consumers willing to put aside their belief that all German wine is sweet and simply enjoy the wines for what they are: balanced, high acid, food-friendly wines of great value.

– Andy Chabot, Director of Food & Beverage