Rheinhessen is one of Germany's wine regions, lying in the Rhine heartland.
Germany is considered one of the world's top producers of elegant white wines — its best rieslings have ravishing purity and concentration — and its vineyards lie at the northernmost extreme of where grapes can dependably ripen.
The majority of fine German wines are dry or just a touch off-dry; the exceptions are the expensive late-harvest dessert wines (beerenauslesen, trockenbeerenauslesen and eisweins), which are crafted to be sweet.
German wine is organised by a traditional hierarchy of six ascending ripeness levels, and since the turn of the twenty-first century by the modern, vineyard-based VDP system adopted by more than two hundred of the country's most prestigious estates.
Acidity is the German constant: most German wines carry 6 to 8 grams per litre, against 5 to 6 for most Champagne.