German White Wines
For centuries the most admired wines of Germany, once as highly priced as First Growth Claret, were Rieslings. Sadly history and reputation became blurred in the post-war period as growers pursued volume from lesser varieties. Now the Liebfraumilch era is over, and the focus is firmly back on quality.
The big debate now is how dry you like your wine. The Germans demand dry Riesling as an accompaniment to food. Elsewhere in the world drinkers love the traditional "noble sweet" styles, in ascending order of sweetness from Kabinett to Spatlese to Auslese and beyond.
We keep a foot in both camps, with both "trocken" (dry) and the more familiar fruity styles in our list. To try to describe these styles in terms of sweetness (i.e. Kabinett as off-dry, Spatlese medium dry) is over-simplistic. The point about these wines is the thrilling balance between natural fruit sugars and acidity. A classic German Riesling has a lovely juicy attack, fruit and minerality (which is often expressed as pepper and spice) on the mid palate and a refreshing, citrussy finish. It is ridiculous to dismiss these wines as "sweet". Sadly too many people won’t try these wines at all, yet when they do they often love them. Kabinetts and Spatleses make the most delicious aperitifs, and the sweeter Ausleses are lovely for drinking after dinner (but not with pudding). Finally, these wines are excellent, with their appealing fruit and very low alcohol levels, for introducing teenagers to wine (we need the next generation of customers!).
A simple guide to decoding the names of the wines: the first word is usually the name of the village, but with -er added. The second is the name of the vineyard. Thus Urziger Wurzgarten translates as the spice garden vineyard at Urzig.

Buy 12
Save £13.14
Not bone dry, but a very well-made bottle of crisp, grapefruity Riesling: perfect for...
OriginGermany
RegionPfalz
ColourWhite
ABV12%
Bottle75cl
CodeWOL118
GrapeRiesling


Entrancing, expansive aromas; tropical fruit and honeyed botrytis. Such sweet, ripe fruit,...
OriginGermany
RegionNahe
ColourWhite
ABV8.5%
Bottle37.5cl
CodeDON411
GrapeRiesling

Buy 12
Save £12.60
The Pfalz region near Alsace is perhaps better known for dry Riesling, but this is in the...
OriginGermany
RegionPfalz
ColourWhite
ABV11%
Bottle75cl
CodeWAL118
GrapeRiesling

Buy 12
Save £14.10
Loosen's entry level, off-dry Riesling is a benchmark Mosel example, showing classic...
OriginGermany
RegionRheingau
ColourWhite
ABV8.5%
Bottle75cl
CodeDRL118
GrapeRiesling

Buy 12
Save £17.94
Dry Riesling from superstar Johannes Leitz's south-facing vineyards above the Rhine....
OriginGermany
RegionRheingau
ColourWhite
ABV12%
Bottle75cl
CodeLEI418
GrapeReisling

Buy 12
Save £20.34
From 60 year old ungrafted vines growing on this brutally steep, red slate vineyard. Delicious...
OriginGermany
RegionMosel
ColourWhite
ABV8%
Bottle75cl
CodeDRL218
GrapeRiesling

Buy 12
Save £25.14
Tonschiefer = clay slate. From low yields in the Leistenberg and Hanglagen vineyards,a stunning...
OriginGermany
RegionNahe
ColourWhite
ABV12%
Bottle75cl
CodeDON519
GrapeRiesling

Buy 12
Save £13.50
Off-dry (about 18 grams residual sugar), a textbook example of the grape, light, fragrant with...
OriginGermany
RegionPfalz
ColourWhite
ABV11.5%
Bottle75cl
CodeWOL319
GrapeGewurztraminer