German Wine Labels

I came across this article on Understanding German Wine Labels today and I thought I'd share. From what I understand German wines are much more regulated than other wines (especially American ones!) so it's (somewhat) easy to tell what you're getting into when you read the label.

I share this because my first experience learning about all of this was at Cru, the wonderful one-star Michelin restaurant in New York. They have an amazing wine list that my friends and I found impossible to sift through to find a good wine. Fortunately, they also have a great somollier who helped us make sense of everything. We somehow decided that a Riesling was the way to go for us since we were having the chef's tasting menu. What was so great about this somollier was that he explained everything about this wine to us, which allowed us to appreciate it more. This leads me to the German wine label. Understanding what's on the label can tell you where that wine is from, the level of sugars, and some other things I can't remember.

The point is, not all Rieslings are super sweet and knowing how to read the label can help you find something you like.

In case you were wondering, the wine we all fell in love with was the Schlossgut diel 1997 Dorsheimer burgberg Riesling kabinett Nahe. I forget what most of that means, but that was everything on the label. Basically, it was a great riesling sweet without being cloying and had a nice mineral finish.