Rheinhessen covers more vineyard area than any other German wine region, lying in the Rhine heartland south and west of Mainz.
Its steep Rheinterrasse sites around Nierstein, Oppenheim and Nackenheim face the river on red slate and sandstone and are the source of its most structured rieslings, while the gentler inland hills grow much of the country's silvaner and muller-thurgau; a generation of younger growers has moved the region decisively towards dry wines.
Germany is considered one of the world's top producers of elegant white wines — its top 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.
