Germany

German wines seek the balance between sugar and acidity. One without the other results in a wine that is too sweet and flat or too sharp and acidic. This difficult balance, the long vineyard names and the unexplained scale of sweetness on the label typically don’t make German wines easy for the consumer to understand.

Boasting some of the most Northern vineyards in the world, it is all thanks to careful selection of appropriate grape varietals, the warmer temperature rising off the Rhine River and the extreme steepness of many vineyard sites (which help maximize the sun’s heat) that make it possible for grapes to ripen.