I’ve said it before, I think that German Rieslings are the most food friendly white wine out there!  Their blend of fruit, acidity and range of sweetness lends them a personality that works with so many food categories.  In addition, most are age worthy with some demonstrating the potential to go out 20 years. 

Despite the versatility of these wines, many are intimidated by the bottle label language and categorization of the wines.  Imagine the confusion if Chardonnay or Cabernet Sauvignon were each segmented into many different categories depending upon level of sweetness or tannins!  That being said, there are some basics that should help you sort out some of the confusion and make it easier to interpret the label language or label speak.

German wine is graded according to its natural sugar content of its grapes at harvest.  This does not, necessarily, translate into the sugar content of the wine itself.  The sugar content is measured in Oechsle, each degree of which is equivalent to 2-2.5 g of sugar/liter.  In general, the higher the sugar content of the grapes at harvest, the higher the quality of the resulting wine.  So, it stands to reason that the sweetest German wines are often the greatest, according to their categorization.  As Germany resides in a northern climate, it makes sense that the best sites and producers will harvest the ripest grapes.  Nonetheless, don’t make the mistake of thinking that only sweet wines are the great ones.  There are many examples of off dry whites that are simply spectacular.  In fact, in the past, German wines were more fully fermented, thus reducing the sugar content while increasing the alcohol content and yielding superb dry and full bodied wines.