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OCTOBER 2012 -
SEXY X2
MAGAZINE -
59
ermany produces wines
in many styles: dry, semi-
sweet and sweet white
wines, rosé wines, red wines and
sparkling wines, called Sekt. (The
only wine style not commonly
produced is fortified wine.) Due to
the northerly location of the Ger-
man vineyards, the country has
produced wines quite unlike any
others in Europe, many of outstand-
ing quality. Despite this it is still
better known abroad for cheap,
sweet or semi-sweet, low-quality
mass-produced wines such as
Liebfraumilch.
The wines have historically been
predominantly white, and the
finest made from Riesling. Many
wines have been sweet and low in
alcohol, light and unoaked. Histori-
cally many of the wines (other than
late harvest wines) were probably
dry (trocken), as techniques to stop
fermentation did not exist. Recently
much more German white wine is
being made in the dry style again.
Much of the wine sold in Germany
is dry, especially in restaurants.
However most exports are still of
sweet wines, particularly to the
traditional export markets such as
Great Britain, which is the lead-
ing export market both in terms
of volume and value. The United
States (second in value, third in vol-
ume) and the Netherlands (second
in volume, third in value) are two
other important export markets for
German wine.
Red wine has always been hard
to produce in the German climate,
and in the past was usually light
coloured, closer to rosé or the red
wines of Alsace. However recently
there has been greatly increased
demand and darker, richer red
wines (often barrique aged) are
produced from grapes such as
Dornfelder and Spätburgunder, the
German name for Pinot Noir.
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