| Wines From Germany | | | | September. |
| If I were writing about wine about 100 years ago | | | | German growers also choose their vineyard |
| and I mentioned the second most famous wine | | | | locations very carefully. They will choose only |
| region in the world, would you be surprised to find | | | | south facing slopes in order to save every single |
| out that I was talking about Germany? | | | | second of sunlight during the day. Additionally they |
| Grown at the most northern vineyard region in | | | | plant their vines as close to the river as possible. |
| the world, Germany faces some of the most | | | | They do this both because the river keeps the |
| challenging conditions in the world. These harsh | | | | winter temperatures higher then elsewhere, but |
| growing conditions force German vintners to | | | | also because sunlight reflecting off the river can |
| choose their grapes extremely carefully. The main | | | | add a small touch to ripeness. |
| grape planted in the region is Riesling, which is | | | | Lastly the most common soil is slate. Slate is a |
| perfectly adapted for the extremely cool climate | | | | porous soil which will keep heat in for long periods, |
| because it is able to keep intense flavor (although | | | | while being porous enough to allow roots to |
| only one or two flavors are often present) while | | | | spread over a wide distance. This shale is so |
| keeping an incredibly high acidity. Many wine | | | | prized that when pieces of it fall down a southern |
| drinkers will describe the top German Riesling's as | | | | facing slope, the vineyard hands will pick it up and |
| having a certain energy to them which is | | | | return it to the vineyard by the bucketful. |
| uncommon in any other wine. | | | | One word on those vineyard hands, would you be |
| Being grown at such cool temperatures imposes | | | | surprised to know that the average worker at a |
| it's own set of problems, so German winemakers | | | | German vineyard is a 60 year old retired woman? |
| must make every sacrifice imaginable to achieve | | | | As you can see German wines continue to amaze |
| ripeness. To start they allow their grapes to | | | | based on their quality and frankly based on their |
| mature on the vines for a longer time period then | | | | existence at all. Try a German wine in the future, |
| any other region. It is not uncommon for vines to | | | | you might be surprised at what you find, I know I |
| not be picked until the beginning of November | | | | was. |
| when most other wine regions are picking in | | | | |