https://www.guildsomm.com/public_content/features/articles/b/josh-kelly/posts/champagne-minor-grapesFri, 06 Nov 2026 20:30:00 GMT8277e151-5ba9-4335-93f0-6f497ffb8dc4:182a2ede-bd76-4bf3-a4e6-fae630984e3eJosh KellyWhen Aurélien Laherte, who leads his family’s Laherte Frères estate, in Chavot-Courcourt, initially tasted the individual components of Les 7, his Champagne blend of seven of the nine permitted varieties of the region, Petit Meslier stood out. It was so vivid on its own that, in 2014, he planted an additional 0.2 hectares (0.5 acres) of it. Today, the estate farms about 1 hectare (2.5 acres) of Petit Meslier. Laherte calls the variety “a bit too much rock and roll.” It is intensely aromatic, exceptionally fresh, and not to every drinker’s taste. Arbane, Petit Meslier, Pinot Blanc, Pinot Gris (Fromenteau), Chardonnay Rose, and Voltis together account for roughly 0.5% of the vineyard area in Champagne, a region that is otherwise focused on the familiar Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, and Meunier trio of grapes. While this is indeed a minuscule portion of Champagne’s vineyards, these minor grapes represent both the region’s viticultural history and a newer effort to test varieties bred for resilience. Chardonnay Rose, the most recently approved grape, is a naturally occurring pink-berried mutation of Chardonnay Blanc that has been documented in Champagne since around 1900. Voltis, permitted in the AOC since 2023, is a Variété d’Intérêt à Fin d’Adaptation (VIFA), allowed to be evaluated in commercial vineyards under controlled conditions. Voltis, sometimes mischaracterized as a genetically modified variety, is a modern crossing of Villaris and the disease-resistant breeding line Mtp 3159-2-12, developed in 2002 for greater resilience in the era of climate change. Two additional crossings, Orellis and Serelis, are pending approval for use as VIFA varieties. Laherte can trace old Pinot Gris, Arbane, and Petit Meslier vines to the postwar years, when his grandparents replanted vineyards with material that did not always match its nursery designation. In 2003, Laherte and his father used massal selection to establish a field blend that became the basis for Les 7. Laherte explains, “It is family heritage and also the heritage of all Champagne. I think it is important to preserve it.” Yet this can be a challenge, as practical knowledge about growing these minor grapes declined while the mainstream three gained popularity. Today, growers must relearn how to cultivate them. For Les 7, the seven varieties (Chardonnay Rose and Voltis are the two omitted of Champagne’s nine grapes) are farmed, harvested, pressed, and cofermented. Pinot Gris and Meunier bring earlier ripeness and breadth to the blend, while the later-ripening Arbane and Petit Meslier provide acidity. But Laherte resists giving each variety a permanent role, explaining, “Every year, you find a certain balance.” Laherte decided to expand the Petit Meslier plantings based on his experience blending as well as the grape’s performance in the vineyard. He has found that Petit Meslier can reach maturity while retaining roughly 1.5 grams of acidity per liter more than Chardonnay. Petit Meslier’s pH can approach 2.8, compared with Chardonnay’s at roughly 3.0. These are results of testing in Laherte’s vineyards and cellar, not regional figures, but they suggest that Petit Meslier, once considered difficult to ripen, might thrive in warming conditions. Laherte uses small amounts of Petit Meslier in blends where it can act, in his words, like “seasoning, pepper and salt.” A little can sharpen freshness without obscuring Meunier’s fruit or Chardonnay’s delicacy. For Laherte, who also makes a single-variety bottling of Petit Meslier, this is a grape that can succeed both alone and in a blend. The siblings Claire and Laurent Dérot, who run Champagne Dérot-Delugny, have focused on Pinot Gris, which their grandfather Philippe Dérot planted among Meunier parcels. The family established a dedicated vineyard in 1996, then made a 100% Pinot Gris Champagne in 2009 to mark the estate’s 80 th anniversary. Pinot Gris is challenging in the vineyard. It is highly susceptible to esca, needs regular vine replacement, and can be vulnerable to spring frost. Because the variety tends toward richness, picking time is crucial. In cooler, later-ripening sites, Claire finds that upper slopes, windy exposures, and clay-rich soils all slow sugar accumulation, resulting in wines with spice and freshness—contrasting the characterization of Champagne made with Pinot Gris as broad and heady. But that specificity of terroir also limits opportunities for Pinot Gris. Claire feels that suitable sites are scarce, and, with continued warming, they could become scarcer. In the Côte des Bar, Champagne Rémy Massin et Fils planted Pinot Blanc in 1972, but there was initially too little fruit to vinify it varietally. Cédric Massin added another 0.5 hectares (1.2 acres) in 2000 after tasting a local example of Pinot Blanc that convinced him of the grape’s potential. He has also observed that after frost damages primary shoots, Pinot Blanc, Chardonnay, and Meunier sometimes produce a small secondary crop from later-developing shoots. Growers may drop that fruit because it ripens later and less evenly than the primary crop, but it can be beneficial in a frost-heavy spring. This is another practical reason to continue farming Pinot Blanc, though the strongest argument for the grape is in the glass. In especially successful vintages, Massin makes one of the estate’s most prestigious vintage Champagnes entirely from Pinot Blanc, often intended for the Special Club designation. He believes that Pinot Blanc can translate a pure expression of terroir. For growers, the main attraction of Voltis is its resistance to downy and powdery mildews, which can reduce the number of (but not eliminate) treatments needed to control those diseases. But pathogens can evolve, so some worry about the longevity of this resistance. The VIFA framework, however, gives growers time to test Voltis while limiting its influence. Voltis may account for up to 5% of a grower’s plantings and 10% of a finished blend. After an initial 10-year period, it can be proposed for permanent inclusion, withdrawn, or observed for another 5 years. Thierry Forget, the owner of Forget-Chemin and current president of Club Trésors de Champagne, has a small planting of Voltis. He is curious about how this variety will progress but is not currently using it in his Champagnes. There’s no single likely outcome for Champagne’s lesser-known grapes. Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, and Meunier are poised to remain the region’s foundation for decades to come. But the alternative grapes, and the vineyard knowledge being gained through their cultivation, promise a range of possible responses to rising temperatures, disease pressure, and increasingly unpredictable growing seasons. Laherte’s decision to champion more Petit Meslier began with a single successful blend, yet the grape’s longevity and suitability will be measured by future generations. You Might Also Like Collective Rigor, Individual Expression: Understanding Special Club Champagne , by Josh Kelly Champagne Viticulture and Winemaking Expert Guide Sustainability in Champagne Podcast , with the late Frédéric Panaïotis Bibliography Agroscope. “Agroscope dévoile sept nouveaux cépages résistants.” January 29, 2026. https://www.agroscope.admin.ch/fr/agroscope-devoile-sept-nouveaux-cepages-resistants . Agroscope. “Présentation de sept nouveaux cépages résistants.” Technical presentation delivered at Agrovina, Martigny, Switzerland, January 29, 2026. Bureau Interprofessionnel des Vins de Bourgogne. “La création de variétés résistantes à typicité régionale: CEPInnov.” September 9, 2026. https://extranet.bivb.com/technique-et-innovation/nos-projets/viticulture/la-creation-de-varietes-resistantes-a-typicite-regionale,3091,17996.html? . Comité Champagne. “Grape Varieties.” Accessed July 10, 2026. https://www.champagne.fr/en/about-champagne/a-great-blended-wine/champagne-and-its-grape-varieties . Comité Champagne. “Le Chardonnay rose, un cépage oublié qui retrouve sa place dans le patrimoine champenois.” October 16, 2025. https://www.champagne.fr/fr/approfondir/mediaroom/communique-presse-champagne/le-chardonnay-rose-un-cepage-oublie-qui-retrouve . Government of Canada, Canadian Food Inspection Agency. “Voltis.” Accessed July 28, 2026. https://active.inspection.gc.ca/english/plaveg/pbrpov/cropreport/gra/app00013253e.shtml . Institut national de l’origine et de la qualité. “Le cahier des charges de l’appellation d’origine contrôlée ‘Champagne.’” Homologated by the order of July 31, 2025. Journal officiel de la République française, August 5, 2025. https://www.legifrance.gouv.fr/jorf/id/JORFTEXT000052045089 . Institut national de l’origine et de la qualité. “Varieties of Interest for Adaptation (VIFA).” Accessed July 10, 2026. https://www.inao.gouv.fr/en/vifa . Institut national de recherche pour l’agriculture, l’alimentation et l’environnement. “Inscription de 6 nouvelles variétés.” February 25, 2026. https://svqv.colmar.hub.inrae.fr/actualites/inscription-de-6-nouvelles-varietes . OSCAR: Observatoire national du déploiement des cépages résistants. “Resistant Varieties.” Accessed July 28, 2026. https://observatoire-cepages-resistants.fr/en/resistant-varieties/ . PlantGrape. “Voltis.”Accessed July 28, 2026. https://www.plantgrape.fr/en/varieties/fruit-varieties/380 . Vins de Bourgogne. “Shaping the Future of Bourgogne, One Vine at a Time.” February 2025. https://www.bourgogne-wines.com/press/n-271,2333,14430.html?&args=Y29tcF9pZD0yMzgzJmFjdGlvbj12aWV3X25ld3NsZXR0ZXImaWQ9MTcmbmV3c2xldHRlcl9pZD0xODg1M3w%3D .Champagne-Featurehttps://www.guildsomm.com/public_content/features/podcasts/b/guild_podcasts/posts/exploring-caviarThu, 29 Oct 2026 21:10:00 GMT8277e151-5ba9-4335-93f0-6f497ffb8dc4:31a24ff0-a41f-4727-9d96-e610a5925080GuildSomm AdminIn this episode of GuildSomm: Into the Glass, host and Master Sommelier Chris Tanghe speaks with two guests from Houston, Texas, to discuss the complexities of caviar. Alayna Steinman is the COO and co-owner of Altima Caviar , a company focused on partnering with sustainable producers of high-quality caviar from all over the world that are transparent in their methods. Alayna worked for several Fortune 500 companies prior to joining Altima Caviar. Austin Waiter is executive chef and partner at The Marigold Club in the Montrose neighborhood of Houston. The restaurant is inspired by the luxurious venues of Mayfair, one of London's most posh quarters, and features caviar in multiple ways on its menu. Be sure to check out all the latest content on GuildSomm.com, with another release of our new series of maps, this time featuring Spain and Germany, as well as an article on the state of Chardonnay in Austria and Germany. Thanks for listening. If you enjoyed this episode, please consider leaving us a review, as it helps us connect and grow the GuildSomm community. Cheers! traffic.libsyn.com/.../GSI_Podcast_Caviar_with_Alayna_Steinman_Austin_Waiter_10_29_2026.mp3https://www.guildsomm.com/research/expert_guides/w/expert-guides/2444/germanyThu, 29 Oct 2026 13:42:00 GMT8277e151-5ba9-4335-93f0-6f497ffb8dc4:ed8f5b1c-74b0-40d0-bfce-a9cecde0b9e4Jonathan EichholzIn the public eye, the story of German wine usually begins and ends with Riesling. Contents Setting the Stage Origin of the 1971 Germany Wine Law The 1971 German Wine Law Today The VDP The Grapes of Germany Winegrowing Regions of Germany Sommeliers and wine critics, well acquainted with its charms and severity, perpetually fight its underdog status, waging a long information campaign to educate casual wine drinkers that not all German Riesling is sweet . It’s a versatile grape in terms of sugar: Riesling offers a little or a lot of sweetness—or lacks it completely. We announce its purity, its effortless expression of terroir , its usefulness as a foil for many styles of cuisine, its ability to age magnificently in the cellar. Certainly no country in the world is more tied to the fortunes of Riesling than Germany, which grows almost half of the world’s total supply. But even as the variety finally ascended to become the Germans’ most planted grape in the last days of the 20th century, the country has a richer field of varieties than the stereotype suggests—and the Germans love drinking dry wines! (From 1985 to 2015, the percentage of total German wines vinified dry shot up from 16 to 46%.) Today, a sommelier well-versed in Germany’s offerings should understand its trocken styles, its noble sweet wines, everything in between, red wines, Silvaner, Pinot Blanc, and other grape varieties coming from a diverse set of growing regions and soils, wrapped up in tradition, reclaimed by modern voices, defined in wine law but often exemplified in extralegal categories, rendered obscure by the fearsome constructs of its own language, and… Ah, well. Achtung! Setting the Stage Vitis vinifera arrived in Germany with the Romans, whose legionnaires crossed the Alps over 2,000 years ago and extended their eastern frontier to the Rhine River, far from the traditional bases of viticulture in their Mediterranean homeland. Germanic tribes adopted the culture of the vine, Charlemagne’s Franks spread viticulture east of the Rhine in the late 8th century, and monastic orders of the church acted as its custodians through the medieval period and into the modern age. Just as in Burgundy, many of Germany’s greatest vineyards were first devised and planted by monks, and the Cistercians introduced the cultivation of Riesling and Pinot Noir, Germany’s most important modern grape varieties. The vine’s strongholds in Germany shrunk considerably by the 16th and 17th centuries, whittled down by war, a suddenly cooling climate, and the social and religious upheavals of the day. Germany’s wine culture reemerged in the 18th century, controlled by clerics and princes, and Riesling shot forward as a premier variety. Vineyard ownership migrated to the private sector completely in the aftermath of the French Revolution, which inspired liquidation of church holdings in Germany by the early 1800s, and a golden era for German wine dawned. Rare, noble sweet wines arrived as a currency for the fine wine traders of London, and the great sweet wines of the Middle Rhine region fetched greater prices than the best reds of Bordeaux by the end of the century. “Hock,” already in regular English usage by the 1800s to indicate wines from the Middle Rhine, expanded to become a generic term for German wines. A classic British list of the day may have offered Claret, Port, Sherry, Hock, and eventually Moselle—by the end of the 1800s, fruity and crisp white wines from the Mosel River region evolved as a category distinct from generic Hock. But dark times were ahead. The arrival of American-born grapevine diseases and the annual struggle with a reliably cold climate spurred interest in viticultural science and the development of hardy new varieties. New research stations sprouted throughout Germany, and with them came new grape crossings—varieties obtained for reasons other than wine quality—which would multiply and spread throughout Germany by the mid-20th century. Phylloxera, present since 1872, spread in force after the First World War, clearing the way for the adoption of Müller-Thurgau and its contemporaries. The two world wars scarred and transformed the German wine landscape. In the First World War, French regions saw more actual battle than German winegrowing areas, but German workers were at the front, not in the vineyard. After the abdication of Kaiser Wilhelm II in 1918 and the subsequent loss of political privilege for the German nobility, many of the old aristocratic wine estates entered a period of slow decline. Exports plummeted after the war as the French and British boycotted German products, Hock included. Meanwhile, the lucrative Russian and American markets closed due to revolution and prohibition, respectively. In the period between the wars, Germany’s wine industry turned inward. Weinpropaganda appeared in the 1920s, featuring German soldiers touting white German wines, and a 1930 wine law limited the importation of foreign wines. But all would pale to the impact of World War II. The Nazis drove out the Jews, who accounted for 60 to 70% of the wine merchant trade, and ended the wine auctions that had long been a primary sales mechanism for quality wines. The Nazis took the best (and sweetest) wines for themselves. As the tide turned against Germany, workers died and vineyards sustained bombing raids. At the end of World War II, international boycotts commenced, the country was cleaved in two, and the German vineyard had shrunk to fewer than 50,000 hectares of vines. But times change. In the 1950s, the German agricultural sector rebounded. New grape crossings appeared. New winery technologies took hold and electricity appeared in cellars. German wine became synonymous with sweet and cheap. To English-speaking countries, Liebfraumilch became the most recognizable—and reliably sweet tasting—German wine category. (The Blue Nun brand, originating with a 1921 vintage of H. Sichel Söhne Liebfraumilch, was created by a Jewish merchant family who fled the Nazis in 1938 and returned at the war’s end.) In the post-war period, the Flurbereinigung campaign geared up to consolidate parcels of land divided by successive generations of inheritance and to physically restructure vineyards. By rearranging steep and otherwise inaccessible vineyards, workers could employ machines and increase production. Flurbereinigung eliminated many of the centuries-old terraces critical to winegrowing on some of Germany’s most vertical slopes. In the Rheingau, for instance, workers leveled uneven vineyards with construction waste from the Autobahn A3, which runs through Frankfurt. But, progress. Müller-Thurgau was ascendant; the vineyard was expanding again. And new wine legislation, marking the beginning of the modern age of German viticulture, was near. BACK TO TOP Origin of the 1971 German Wine Law The struggle is real! Nothing strikes fear in the hearts of non-German-speaking sommeliers quite like the uphill climb of German wine law . It is small comfort that the 1971 Deutsches Weingesetz , Germany’s fifth and most current wine law, is perhaps reviled equally by new students who seek to understand it and the producers who have to adhere to it. Rare is the German wine critic who has not pronounced it misguided, yet the system established in 1971 still holds, albeit with plenty of modifications. However flawed it may be, its architects sought to address rampant problems in a rapidly modernizing industry that was emerging from the wreckage of war, with the past, lustrous glory days of Hock and Moselle a dimming memory. Germany’s 1971 wine law attempted to impose new standards of quality and simplify label language, yet it was also enacted in response to external pressure. Europe’s recent bloody past convinced many of the necessity of alliance and economic integration, and in 1957, the European Economic Community (EEC), the predecessor to the EU, was born. West Germany, France, and Italy were its principal founders. Their shared goal of economic integration soon extended to the agricultural sector, and by 1970, to wine. The Goldkapsule In the Mosel and Rheingau, regions famous for noble sweet wines, producers lost an informal means of classifying Spätlesen and Auslesen of extreme richness and sweetness with the passage of the 1971 wine law. The law banned the use of familiar terms like feine, feinste , and hochfeine , historically added to indicate reserve wines within a larger category, so some producers turned to a bit of code. To indicate a higher level of sweetness and distinction beyond a wine’s labeled Prädikat , vintners added a golden capsule. In some cases, an even longer golden capsule ( lange Goldkapsule ) indicates an even rarer and special selection. The capsule is also linked to the level of botrytis; for instance, a wine that reached Beerenauslese in the eyes of the law may be "declassified" to Auslese with a Goldkapsule because it showed more pure varietal character than the higher Prädikat would typically demonstrate. Apart from the color of the capsule, the only means to discern that such a wine is a separate (and more expensive) bottling is to note its unique A.P. number. In the Mosel, producers developed a second code to distinguish among different tiers of wine within a Prädikat and from the same vineyard: the star system. To indicate reserve bottlings, producers may apply one to three stars (*, **, ***), sometimes in conjunction with a Goldkapsule . After World War II, rapidly compounding sets of style qualifiers, vineyard names, and village names began appearing on even the most ordinary wines, creating confusion. Where only the most famous vineyard sites once merited a mention on the label, now any piece of land, no matter how average, made an appearance. Style qualifiers, from Cabinet to hochfeine Auslese to Natur to Nikolauswein and so on, further muddied understanding because they did not have clearly regulated meanings but just conventional applications. At the dawn of the 20th century, most German wines were likely dry in style, and only a very few merited designations implying sweetness, like Spätlese or Auslese . By the 1950s, however, new technologies such as sterile filtration allowed the production of sweet wines with ease, and terms formerly reserved for specialized wines became commonplace. If sweetness was suddenly easy to achieve, the German answer in 1971 was to modify the requirements for Spätlese and its brethren, shifting the obligation from sugar remaining to sugar occurring naturally in the grape. Before the law was put into place, other terms in regular usage, such as Natur , could imply one thing—the wine should be completely natural, i.e., free of all additives, including Süssreserve and sulfur—but mean another: in this case, that the wine did not undergo chaptalization. The law’s authors wanted to restore simplicity and precision to German labels that had become full of cumbersome terminology that seemed, increasingly, to lack clear meaning. They redefined some classic label terms and eliminated others. In effect, anything not expressly authorized by the law was prohibited. In retrospect, the most damaging aspect of the 1971 wine law was to annihilate or aggregate many of the country’s Einzellagen (individual vineyard sites). The law compacted the number of recognized single vineyards from 30,000 to around 2,700. As a reaction to the seemingly limitless procession of vineyards appearing on even ordinary wine labels by the 1960s, Germany desired simplification. The law set a minimum five-hectare size for single vineyards, enlarging some sites to include lesser surrounding plots while eliminating others. Additionally, the law created a new category, Grosslagen , to identify “collective” vineyard sites. As a catch-all category, the Grosslagen subsumed many preexisting, lesser sites, but the law provided no clarity for the consumer in labeling. Piesporter Goldtröpfchen (an acclaimed Einzellage in the village of Piesport) and Piesporter Michelsberg (a Grosslage site covering a huge band of vineyards around the town) appear to provide a choice between apples and apples to a consumer without intimate knowledge of the region. Instead of simplifying the label, the creation of Grosslagen and the aggregation of Einzellagen added confusion and eroded the distinctiveness of Germany’s grandest vineyards. As (West) Germany strove to improve truth in labeling and clarity of labels, the country concurrently needed to integrate its own traditions and laws with the EEC’s Common Market Organization for Wine, which was finalized in 1970. The EEC policy, modeled on the similar systems of France and Italy (its two largest wine-producing countries), created two tiers of wines: Quality Wines Produced in a Specific Region (QWPSR) and Table Wines, prohibiting any mention of place. In Germany, there was a long history of the celebration of certain sites, but no legal mandate for appellations. That changed in 1971, with the formal delimitation of 11 Anbaugebiete , Germany’s winegrowing regions. Legally, the Anbaugebiete were equivalent to French AOCs or Italian DOCs, and wines labeled with an Anbaugebiet— meaning they were produced from grapes grown in a single winegrowing region—could comply with the new European standards for QWPSR. So with the 1971 wine law, Germany adopted the EEC model, creating the two categories of Qualitätswein bestimmter Anbaugebiet (literally, “quality wine from a growing region”) and Tafelwein (“table wine”). However, given Germany’s special circumstances, the 1971 law added a third tier, Qualitätswein mit Prädikat (QmP), as a subset within Qualitätswein bestimmter Anbaugebiet (QbA) . This category, indicating quality wines with a special attribute, allowed Germany to retain some of its traditional terms— Spätlese, Auslese, and so on—within the framework of the new European system. The special attributes, as defined in the 1971 law, were minimum levels of must weight. As ripeness at harvest became the apparent mark of quality for these categories of wine, chaptalization was banned for Qualitätswein mit Prädikat , but the law continued to permit its use in the broader category of Qualitätswein bestimmter Anbaugebiet. Unfortunately, the widespread adoption of early ripening grape crossings like Müller-Thurgau in the 1950s and 1960s allowed producers to reach Prädikat levels of ripeness with newfound ease; the law intended to protect terms like Kabinett by attaching a definition of minimum ripeness but instead stripped them of any rarity or reserve. And, as sweetness no longer mattered in the eyes of the law, the 1971 law permitted the addition of Süssreserve (“sweet reserve,” or sterilized fresh grape must) for wines of any category, at up to 15% of the total volume of the wine. While a small adjustment with Süssreserve after fermentation can allow a producer to fine-tune final sugar levels, this adjustment further purged the Prädikate of the original meaning—residual sugar. Regulation of producers to ensure compliance has remained the same since the passage of the 1971 law. To qualify as Qualitätswein or Prädikatswein , wines must pass a chemical and sensory analysis. Upon successful result, the wine is awarded a unique Amtliche Prüfungsnummer (the “official exam number,” or A.P. number), a new certification that debuted with the 1971 wine law. Each A.P. number consists of five sets of digits. The digits, in order, indicate the following: (1) the location of the examination board, (2) the village in which the wine was produced, (3) the producer, (4) the unique number of the bottling, and (5) the year in which the wine was tested, typically one calendar year after the vintage. All Qualitätswein and Prädikatswein must carry an A.P. number, theoretically ensuring that quality remains strict. However, in the modern German wine industry, nearly 98% of the entire volume of production falls into these categories—so does an A.P. number really ensure quality wine? BACK TO TOP The 1971 German Wine Law Today Classic and Selection: By the Numbers Classic wines are considered “harmoniously dry,” with a maximum residual sugar content of 15 g/l, and Selection wines are “superior dry” with a maximum residual sugar content of 9 g/l (12 g/l allowed for Riesling). Wines labeled “Classic” are single varietal wines and omit any mention of a vineyard on the label. They show a superior minimum alcohol content of 12% (11.5% in the Mosel). Selection wines are single vineyard wines from a single variety. Yields are restricted to 60 hl/ha. Must weight for Selection wines must be equivalent to Auslese, and vineyards are hand-harvested. The wines may not be released prior to September 1 of the year following harvest. The 1971 wine law is still on the books, with several modifications. A 1982 update introduced the category of Landwein and designated Eiswein as an independent Prädikat level. Some famous vineyards, such as Forster Kirchenstück in the Pfalz, Bernkasteler Doctor in the Middle Mosel, and Kiedricher Turmberg in the Rheingau, escaped the minimum five-hectare mandate for single vineyards. Minimum Öchsle levels for Prädikat categories have been raised over time. New legally sanctioned terms debuted in 2000, including “Classic” and “Selection,” which were intended to replace halbtrocken and trocken , respectively. (Neither really caught on.) Erstes Gewächs got formal approval for use on the labels of dry wines from specific sites in the Rheingau. And while the law technically prohibits any label language not expressly defined, at least one informal term— feinherb , indicating a slightly off-dry style—persisted and replaced halbtrocken on most labels. Under the EU-wide CMO reforms on wine passed in the late 2000s, Germany’s 13 Anbaugebiete (after the country's reunification, 2 were added to the original 11) formally became PDOs. In German, a protected designation of origin is known, cumbersomely, as a geschützte Ursprungsbezeichnung (gU). QbA and QmP became traditional terms under the eyes of the law, and Germany took the opportunity to (mercifully) shorten the category names to Qualitätswein and Prädikatswein . Tafelwein evolved into Wein . Prädikatswein Minimum Must Weight Ranges All weights in degrees Öchsle Kabinett: 70-85° Spätlese: 76 -95° Auslese: 83-105° Beerenauslese: 110-128° Eiswein: 110-128° Trockenbeerenauslese: 150-154° Note: The above values are not absolute ranges—minimum must requirements vary by region and variety. For instance, Riesling requires a minimum 80° in the Mosel for Spätlese, but it must achieve 90° for that category in the Pfalz. There is no maximum level for each Prädikat , meaning that declassification is possible, and common in hotter years. Therefore, the four German categories of wine today are the following: Wein : Formerly Tafelwein , this category carries no geographic designation, although wines may be labeled as Deutscher Wein if produced from German grapes. Variety and vintage are permitted on the label. Landwein : An IGP category including trocken and halbtrocken wines produced from any of 26 winegrowing regions, known as Landweingebiete . Qualitätswein: A PDO category, encompassing most of the country’s top dry wines. This category, inclusive of Prädikatswein , covers 96% of German wine production and almost all exports. In light of the low alcohol levels classically achieved by some of Germany’s finest sweet wines, this category requires wines to acquire a minimum 7% alcohol content, rather than the minimum 8.5% mandated by European law. Prädikatswein: A PDO category and a subset of Qualitätswein , encompassing all of the country’s best sweet wines. The lower Prädikate require a minimum 7% acquired alcohol; from Beerenauslese on up, the minimum is reduced to 5.5%. The law survives, but in order to fully understand the modern German label, one must look beyond it to the work of the VDP, an organization representing many of Germany’s best producers that has worked to return emphasis to the vineyard. BACK TO TOP The VDP The Verband Deutscher Prädikatsweingüter, or VDP, is an association of 202 (as of the close of 2022) German producers dedicated to high quality, the preservation of a sense of place, and those grape varieties traditionally cultivated within each winegrowing region. The VDP is a national entity comprising 11 regional associations; today, the organization counts members from all 13 German Anbaugebiete among its ranks. Membership requires a commitment to the VDP’s classification system as well the observance of higher minimum must weights and lower maximum yields than permitted by German law. All wines must be estate grown. Hand-harvesting is required for all single vineyard wines and for any Prädikat wines of Auslese level or above. In their vineyards, members must cultivate a minimum 80% of traditional grape varieties, from selections drawn by each regional association—lists that generally exclude crossings developed for hardiness in the vineyard and high, reliable yields. Additionally, in an effort to restore individualism and impact to the vineyard names of Germany, the VDP prohibits its members from using the loathed Grosslagen of 1971 on their labels. (Out with Grosslagen ; long live Grosse Lage .) Member estates are identified by the mandatory presence off the VDP’s logo, the Traubenadler , on bottle capsules. The VDP was founded in 1910 as the VDNV, or Verband Deutscher Naturweinversteigerer, an assembly of four regional winegrowers’ associations that promoted the sale of Natur (unchaptalized) wines at auction. The organization survived the turmoil of two world wars but faced ruin in 1971, when the newly enacted wine law banned the use of the term Natur. (Echoing concerns of the modern natural wine movement, the German Wine Institute would no longer allow the term’s traditional use, indicating wines without chaptalization, as the wines could contain other additives, like sulfur and Süssreserve . ) Facing dissolution, the core members rebranded their association as the VDP and refocused on the promotion of more stringent requirements for wine quality than the new law demanded. In 1984, the VDP started work on its own vineyard classification, using old tax registries and Napoleonic maps to rediscover parcels gerrymandered out of existence with the new law and Flurbereinigung . A focus on terroir expression as an indivisible part of superior wine quality took hold in the 1990s. In 2002, the project culminated with the launch of a formal, yet extralegal, three-tier vineyard classification system. In 2012, the VDP refined the existing system, establishing the final framework that remains in place today. From the 2011 vintage forward, VDP members may produce wines in four different categories of origin. Emulating Burgundy, the VDP system includes a regional tier ( Gutswein ), a village tier ( Ortswein ), premier cru vineyards ( Erste Lage ), and grand cru vineyards ( Grosse Lage ). Typically, the only statement of origin provided for Gutswein is the name of the Anbaugebiet , often accompanied by a fantasy name. Ortswein is the product of multiple vineyards in a single village and is typically labeled with the village name and/or a statement of soil, such as Kalkstein (limestone), Blauen Schiefer (blue slate), or Buntsandstein (red sandstone). Erste Lage and Grosse Lage wines are single-vineyard selections, and producers are strictly limited in their choice of varieties for both categories. The Erste Lage category is often labeled in traditional fashion, with the vineyard preceded by the village name—e.g., Iphöfer Kronsberg—while the Grosse Lage sites are labeled solely with the vineyard name, in true grand cru fashion: Goldtröpfchen, Rothenberg, Hermannshöhle. Many Grosse Lage and Erste Lage sites may share names with official Einzellagen , yet they are often defined more narrowly in size. Others resurrect the old names of pre-1971 sites engulfed by adjacent vineyards. The name of the category for each individual wine may appear on the capsule alongside the VDP logo, but producers often omit this mention for the Gutswein and Ortswein tiers. Producers may release wines of any sweetness level at any tier of the new hierarchy. However, in an effort to restore the historical meanings connoted by Prädikate , VDP producers must limit their use to sweet wines. Therefore, Spätlese trocken , Auslese trocken , and the like no longer appear on dry wine labels of VDP producers. Absent the mention of a Prädikat , the term trocken continues to signify dry wines at the Erste Lage level or below. For the Grosse Lage category, however, it is replaced by the grander term Grosses Gewächs, or “Great Growth.” A Grosses Gewächs wine is therefore a dry wine from a Grosse Lage vineyard, identified by the appearance of the trademarked acronym “GG” on the label. Grosses Gewächs white wines may not be released until September 1 of the year after harvest. For red wines, the category requires an additional year of aging and at least 12 months in wood. Prädikatswein Grosse Lage wines may be released as early as May 1 of the year after harvest. Remember that all VDP dry wines, including the very expensive Grosses Gewächs bottlings, are simply Qualitätswein in the eyes of the law. Chaptalization is therefore legally possible—and routinely practiced with Spätburgunder—despite the VDP’s original mission of promoting Natur wines. The maximum yield for each category is as follows: Gutswein: 75 hl/ha Ortswein: 75 hl/ha Erste Lage: 60 hl/ha Grosse Lage: 50 hl/ha While the VDP generally requires its membership to adhere to the current system, there are countless exceptions and exemptions to the rules. Remember that the national organization is composed of 10 regional bodies, each with their own traditions. Some estates, with long histories of marketing alternative terms, still use their own label language in place of Grosse Lage and Erste Lage ; for example, Bürklin-Wolf continues to label its top single-vineyard wines as “GC” and “PC.” Schloss Johannisberg continues to label their “Silberlack” Grosses Lage Riesling as Trocken , even as Koehler-Ruprecht was forbidden from retaining its traditional Prädikat declarations on dry wines—a move that led the producer to leave the association in 2014. The rules are not for everyone—in the Mosel, for instance, producers make Grosse Lage Kabinett at yields of 60 to 70 hectoliters per hectare, a violation tolerated by the VDP because the higher yields are more suitable for that style of wine. Because the VDP’s classification system is not a legal construction, it does not always behave predictably. Trying to understand the system by flagging its inconsistencies is to slide headlong into confusion and despair. BACK TO TOP The Grapes of Germany Today, Germany maintains 102,000 hectares of vines. In 2017, it was the world’s 14th largest grower, behind Greece and South Africa. Germany emphasizes varietal expressions over blended wines, and the variety is often a more prominent feature on the label than region. The country adheres to the EU minimum of 85% for varietal labeling. All statistics courtesy of the German Wine Institute. Riesling (24,410 ha, 2022): In the late 1990s, Riesling, Germany’s most distinguished grape variety, surpassed Müller-Thurgau to become the country’s most planted grape. Riesling is the most planted variety in 7 of Germany’s 13 Anbaugebiete , and the country maintains just under 40% of the world’s nearly 64,000 hectares of the vine. Whether the grape originated in Alsace or Germany is unknown; monks cultivated Riesslaner in the Rheingau vineyards of Kloster Eberbach by 1435, and in a 1552 Latin book of herbs, Hieronymus Bock logged Riesling in the modern-day regions of the Mosel, Rheingau, and Rheinhessen. Forces both noble and clerical mandated its cultivation throughout Germany’s emergent fine-wine regions from the late 17th century on. Riesling became synonymous with the Rheingau, a region that was dominated by red wine in the Middle Ages. Indeed, the Benedictine monks of Johannisberg insistent on its propagation were immortalized in the nickname Johannisberger, used throughout the 20th-century New World to refer to the grape. Naturally floral and aromatic, high in acidity, and capable of making age-worthy dry and sweet wines, Riesling is a sommelier secret weapon and Germany’s best and most transparent indicator of terroir . Winemaking is not one-size-fits-all, beginning even before harvest. The decision to make a dry or sweet wine impacts yield: lower yields—and the increased concentration they afford—are necessary for great dry wines, but the sweeter styles often benefit from higher yields as they gain concentration from residual sugar. Some wines undergo cold, pre-fermentation skin contact to extract phenolic content and naturally raise pH; others are whole-bunch pressed for cleaner, purer must. German Riesling producers are divided on the subject of spontaneous (ambient) versus inoculated fermentations; a spontaneous ferment is more unpredictable and requires more oxygen, producing a wilder array of earthy, sulfide-driven flavors, while inoculated ferments are simpler to maintain and can deliver fruit forwardness and cleaner flavors. Fermentation and aging may occur in stainless steel or large oak containers. (Classic German vessels include the Stück , a 1,200-liter oval cask, and its variants, the Doppelstück and Halbstück , 2,400 liters and 600 liters respectively.) Malolactic fermentation is usually stopped, by naturally low pH or by design, although some producers resort to the process in spectacularly acidic, lean years. Perhaps counterintuitively, top dry wines can be leesy and rich, with weight that recalls Chardonnay, while great sweet wines can seem light and delicate, despite intense residual sugar. Germany excels at both ends of the sugar spectrum with Riesling, and despite lingering stereotypes, quantities of the trocken bottlings outpaced sweeter styles by the mid-2000s. Even so, legally dry Riesling in Germany often has a pinch of residual sugar to balance the naturally high acidity the grape achieves in these northerly growing regions. Müller-Thurgau (10,970 ha, 2022): Müller-Thurgau, a Riesling and Madeleine Royale crossing first obtained by the Swiss Dr. Hermann Müller at the Geisenheim Grape Breeding Institute in 1882, became an incredibly important variety in Germany after World War II. Early ripening and high yielding, the variety became such an important component of mass-made Liebfraumilch wines and other low-end products that it quickly emerged as Germany’s leading grape variety in 1969, a position it maintained until Riesling usurped it 30 years later. German consumers during the period loved off-dry Müller-Thurgau for its muscat-like taste, but the variety is less acidic and less aromatic than Riesling and is not considered a quality grape in Germany today. It remains the second most planted variety in the country, but acreage continues to diminish; acreage in 2014 was about half of what it was in 1995. Spätburgunder/Pinot Noir (11,512 ha, 2022): Germany is the world’s third-largest producer of Pinot Noir, trailing only France and the United States. Baden, where Pinot Noir first appeared in the late 800s, leads the way with nearly half of the country’s supply, followed by the Pfalz and the Rheinhessen. From 1964, when Pinot Noir claimed less than 2,000 hectares, the grape’s popularity has soared. It is a beneficiary of climate change and maturing German tastes for fine red wine, and the grape’s ascendance is in line with the overall advancement of red grapes in Germany. Frühburgunder, a natural mutation genetically identical to Pinot Noir, is a rare specialty of Germany. As of 2017, there were 246 hectares in the country. Thicker skinned than Pinot Noir, the grape also ripens about two weeks earlier in the season. Resultant wines are darker in color and fruit expression, with lower acidity. In France, the grape is known as Pinot Noir Précoce or, historically, Pinot Madeleine. Dornfelder (6,812 ha, 2022): Germany’s second most planted red grape variety, Dornfelder, is a cross of Helfensteiner and Heroldrebe developed by August Herold in 1956 and named after a founder of the Weinsberg viticulture school, August Dornfeld. The thick-skinned grape produces a darker, fuller style of wine than Spätburgunder but is highly vigorous in the vineyard. Its current popularity in Germany's domestic market stems from the common belief among consumers that color equals quality in reds. Grauburgunder/Pinot Gris (8,094 ha, 2022): Grauburgunder has been cultivated in Germany since the Middle Ages and shows the most potential in the southern region of Baden, across the Rhine River from Alsace. Germany is actually the world’s second-largest grower of Pinot Gris, trailing Italy in total acreage. Here the wines are typically dry, with more power and richness than Italian Pinot Grigio but less outright funk than in Alsace. Occasionally, sweet botrytized wines are produced, labeled as Ruländer. Weissburgunder/Pinot Blanc (6,181 ha, 2022): Germany is the world’s leading grower of Pinot Blanc, and the grape appears throughout Germany’s Anbaugebiete . Strongholds are Baden and the Pfalz. Weissburgunder in Germany can be simple, innocuous, and aromatically neutral, but at the top end, it has emerged as Germany’s leading textural white grape. Acidity typically rates higher than in Grauburgunder but lower than in Riesling. Great Weissburgunder is subject to many of the same treatments in the winery as good white Burgundy. Silvaner (4,419 ha, 2022): Once the most planted variety in Germany, Silvaner lost its top billing to Müller-Thurgau in 1969 and has been sliding ever since. Today, it makes up just under 5% of the total German vineyard, yet in 2015, Silvaner finally gained a little ground, halting 50 years of decline in the vineyard. A Traminer and Österreichisch-Weiss (“Austrian white”) crossing, Silvaner is Austrian in origin and first arrived in Franken, its natural home in Germany, during the mid-17th century. In comparison to Riesling, it is lower in acid, less aromatic, less fruit driven, and prone to higher levels of alcohol. (If anything, Grüner Veltliner may be a better comparison for style.) Silvaner ripens earlier than Riesling, which led many 18th- and 19th-century growers to interplant it as a form of insurance, a tradition mirrored by grape breeders, who used Silvaner as a parent stock for crossings like Bacchus, Morio-Muskat, and Rieslaner. There are four broad types of the variety: Grüner, Blauer, Roter, and Gelber—green, blue, red, and yellow. By the 20th century, grape breeders isolated the most popular clones of the grape from the Grüner Silvaner sub-variety, which developed a thicker skin, generating greater resistance to rot and mildew but also a higher degree of bitterness and green character in the wines. Today, the newest clones developed at the Würzburg grape-breeding institute in Franken are typically of the Grüner or Gelber Silvaner sub-varieties, exhibiting looser clusters, smaller berries, less susceptibility to botrytis, and heightened aromatics and acid structure. Lemberger/Blaufränkisch (1,929 ha, 2022): German renditions of the Austrian Blaufränkisch variety are beginning to show modest success, and many consider Lemberger to be the second highest quality red grape in Germany. It is cultivated primarily in Württemberg. Scheurebe (1,483 ha, 2022): Named for the grape breeder Georg Scheu, who obtained this cross of Riesling and Bukettrebe at Alzey in 1916, Scheurebe is held as one of the few German crossings that can achieve high quality in the glass. Like Riesling, it can over-deliver in both dry and sweet versions, and it offers some of the pungently aromatic, thiol-based aromas of Sauvignon Blanc: grapefruit, cassis, cat pee. It is most successful in the Rheinhessen and the Pfalz. Like Müller-Thurgau, Scheurebe was originally recorded as a cross of Riesling and Silvaner, an error corrected one century after its birth. Other Varieties: It is international white varieties that are advancing most suddenly in the German vineyard. Chardonnay, ubiquitous elsewhere, was unknown in Germany prior to the 1990s, yet there are nearly 2,000 hectares today, much of it vinified as Sekt . Since 1995, Sauvignon Blanc made its debut and amassed over 1,100 hectares. White German grape crossings are all on the decline in the vineyard. Kerner maintains almost 2,600 hectares under vine, although over 4,500 hectares have been ripped out since 1995. Bacchus, Ortega, and others are similarly on the decline. Important German red grapes beyond those detailed above include Schwarzriesling (Pinot Meunier) and Trollinger (Schiava). Both are around 2,000 hectares in acreage and grow almost exclusively in Württemberg. Regent, an early-ripening red hybrid first authorized for planting in 1996, has actually spread to cover about 1,800 hectares, but this is not a grape for quality German red wines of the future. German Sekt Germans are the biggest sparkling wine consumers per capita, and Germany is the third-largest producer of sparkling wines in the world. The country's history of sparkling wine production is long. The first German to make sparkling wine was Florenz-Ludwig Heidsieck, in 1785 in Champagne. The first sparkling wine made in Germany was in Württemberg, in 1826. Sparkling wine quickly became so popular that Kaiser Wilhelm set a Sekt tax in 1902 in order to finance his navy. It remains today: 1.02 Euro per bottle. Around 85% of the output comes from the seven largest companies, including Henkell, Rotkäppchen, and Söhnlein-Brillant. These are companies that buy base wines from all over Europe and make fizz with the tank method. Ever wonder where all the Airen goes? Well, here is the answer! But that's another story. Since growers now know how to make great Riesling and Pinot Noir, they are keen to improve sparkling wine quality. The leader of this movement is Volker Raumland from Rheinhessen, who founded Germany's first winery focusing only on sparkling wines. He started with a service business, to make Sekt for other wineries, since many lack the special bottling machines and other equipment required. However, he makes outstanding sparkling wines himself and makes base wine solely for this purpose—not too ripe, hand-harvested, using the free-run juice. Ten years ago, when growers had mediocre wine in the cellar, they said, “Oh, let’s make Sekt out of it, put a lot of dosage on top, and sell it.” Those days are almost over! Raumland and many other growers are making very good base wines. Some of these are fermented and aged in oak. A few growers are even making single-vineyard Sekt . Half of the premium Sekt is made from Riesling. For basic Riesling Sekt , long lees ageing is not required, since the lees aromas would overwhelm the aromatic Riesling character. Raumland and other producers like Matthieu Kaufmann (former cellar master at Bollinger) of Reichsrat von Buhl make profound Riesling Sekt . They do some malolactic fermentation and leave the Sekt longer on the lees, resulting in more autolytic character but with the Riesling fruit still shining through. Theirs is a unique and special sparkling wine style. One-third of premium Sekt is made of Pinot varieties, with Pinot Blanc playing an important role. The remaining one-fifth of premium Sekt is made with aromatic varieties. Scheurebe and Gewürztraminer are specialties. Most Sekt is Brut, with a handful of producers making very balanced Brut Nature styles. – Romana Echensperger, MW BACK TO TOP Rheingau The Rheingau is the classic site of Rhenish Riesling cultivation -H.W. Dahlen, General Secretary of the German Wine-Growers Association, 1894 The Rhine River, one of Western Europe’s key routes for transport and trade, flows northward from its headwaters in Switzerland to the North Sea without deviation, save for one short turn to the west. Between the cities of Mainz and Wiesbaden, the Rhine’s wide path collides with the rise of the western Taunus range, and it swerves westward past the town of Rüdesheim am Rhein before turning north again. On this 30-kilometer stretch of river, the central Rheingau rises from the river’s north bank—a massive south-facing slope that climbs, unhurriedly, from 75 meters at the water’s edge to over 300 meters in elevation. Here, where some believe the Riesling vine first sprung from a seed, Germany’s international reputation for world-class wines was forged. The central Rheingau includes most of the region’s vineyards and its most renowned winegrowing villages. Between the outskirts of Wiesbaden on its eastern edge and the village of Rüdesheim in the west are Walluf, Martinsthal, Rauenthal, Eltville, Kiedrich, Erbach, Hallgarten, Hattenheim, Oestrich, Winkel, and Johannisberg. Geisenheim, home to Germany’s top enological school and grape-breeding institute, sits at the river’s edge, downslope and just west of Johannisberg. (Johannisberg itself is technically part of the larger Geisenheim municipality.) From Walluf to the town of Geisenheim, the Rhine River is broad, the hillside sprawling and less abrupt. Soils feature a mixture of slate, quartzite, and sandstone, with layers of loess and clay on the lower slopes and stonier, more eroded soils on the upper slopes, with a higher proportion of slate. West of Geisenheim, the river narrows before bending northward, and the Rheingau hillside becomes more dramatic. Many of the central Rheingau’s vineyards exhibit a leisurely incline, but at its edge, Rüdesheim claims the region’s steepest slopes, which reach a 70% grade in the Grosse Lage site Berg Schlossberg. The classic English nickname for Rhine wines, Hock, is derived from the name of Hochheim. There are two other, smaller areas within the Rheingau Anbaugebiet . The second sector is the Western Rheingau, which extends from the red-wine commune of Assmannshausen northward to Lorchhausen on the right bank of the river, at the entrance to the Rhine Gorge and the Mittelrhein Anbaugebiet . Conditions are more in line with the Mittelrhein than the central Rheingau; colder sites and purer slate soils are common. The third area , the Maingau, is not actually on the Rhine at all. Instead, this small enclave of vines is clustered around the village of Hochheim am Main, east of Wiesbaden in the valley of the Main River, a Rhine tributary. It is uncharacteristically warm, and soils here demonstrate a geological transition from the Rhenish Massif into the Mainz Basin, with loess-covered loams and marls replacing sandstone and slate. Slopes are gentler than on the Rhine itself and overall lower in elevation, rarely exceeding 120 meters above sea level. Despite what could have been a sensible division into two or three Bereiche , the 1971 wine law identifies only one: Johannisberg, named for the small village at the heart of the central Rheingau. On the Rheingau hill, proud castles ( Schloss) and former abbeys ( Kloster ) populate the landscape, signaling the historical importance of the church and aristocracy, the chief architects of viticulture in the Rheingau. As in the Mosel, advancing Roman legions introduced the vine here, but it was in the monastic era that winegrowing came to dominate this small region to a degree unmatched anywhere else in Germany. Benedictine monks founded a Kloster at Johannisberg in the early 12th century, and the Cistercians arrived from Burgundy to establish Kloster Eberbach in 1136. Like their contemporaries in the Côte d’Or, the Cistercians of Kloster Eberbach developed a massive network of vineyards, and by 1435, the monks’ records indicate the cultivation of Riesling. Kloster Eberbach began marking high-quality wines as Cabinet in 1712, and in 1775, Schloss Johannisberg announced the first planned Spätlese harvest of botrytis-affected fruit. Meanwhile, aristocrats secured massive Rheingau vineyard holdings as well. Schloss Schönborn, founded in 1349, Schloss Vollrads, Baron Langwerth von Simmern, Schloss Reinhartshausen, and other winegrowing estates that count centuries of noble lineage still populate the region. Schloss Schönborn and Schloss Johannisberg were among the first producers in Germany to introduce glass bottles, in the early 1700s. The influence of both church and aristocracy would erode in the modern era. The Catholic Church lost many of its lands in Germany at the beginning of the 19th century, in a wave of secularization instigated by Napoleon. Schloss Johannisberg is now under corporate ownership, while the Eberbach Abbey and its famous walled Steinberg domaine are now the property of the Hessen State Winery, the largest single wine producer in Germany. And the stodgy approach of some of the elder aristocratic houses, steadfast in the belief that noble blood produces noble wines, started to prove otherwise. The height of German wine fame in the 19th century rested on the shoulders of Rheingau Riesling, but by the late 20th century, many of the region’s wines seemed less inspired. Today, the Rheingau is finally experiencing renewed vigor, amidst changes in philosophy and management at the old guard, propelled by the energy and imagination of newer producers who number their experience in years, not centuries. The best of the Rheingau today includes Peter Jakob Kühn, Josef Leitz, Eva Fricke, Georg Breuer, and Künstler—all newcomers or names unknown in the mid-20th century. No region in Germany is as committed to Riesling as the Rheingau. It accounts for almost 2,500 of the region’s 3,160 total hectares under vine—8 out of every 10 vines in the Rheingau are Riesling. Almost exclusively, Riesling is grown in the best vineyard sites; many of Germany’s most legendary examples of the wine were produced here. As the first Spätlese and, subsequently, Auslese wines were fashioned from Rheingau grapes by the end of the 1700s, the region has a long history of success with noble sweet wines. Botrytis is a common occurrence near the broad Rhine, especially in vineyards nearest the river. (It's also common in the vineyards closest to the riverside villages, where buildings constrict the flow of wind and encourage rot.) Even as the 50th parallel runs directly through the Rheingau, the moderating impact of the Rhine on local temperatures allows Riesling to hang on the vine into the early autumn for the late harvests necessary for Prädikatswein. In most vintages, the Rheingau adds 40% or more of its production to the Prädikatswein category, even as some of it finishes dry. The modern focus is dry Riesling: around 80% of Rheingau Riesling has nine grams per liter or less of residual sugar. A turn toward dry Riesling in the Rheingau, which would replace off-dry wines as the primary product of the region by the end of the 20th century, began with the founding of the Charta Association in 1984. The association strove to promote more stringent quality guidelines than the 1971 wine law provides, to better define the Rheingau’s great vineyard sites, and to elevate dry Riesling to its historical role as a top product of the region prior to the Second World War. (Its aims echo—and inform—those of the VDP.) Charta Riesling became a brand for its members. Wines in the dry style carried the association’s logo, an emblem of three Roman arches styled from the balcony of the historic Graue Haus hotel in Winkel. Bernhard Breuer of Rüdesheim’s Georg Breuer estate led the charge, and the conversation started by Charta would eventually extend beyond the Rheingau and ignite debate throughout Germany. Locally, producers in the Rheingau pushed for a legal classification of vineyard sites and a new legal designation for top dry wines of the Rheingau: Erstes Gewächs. This “first growth” category, permitted under German wine law for the 1999 vintage forward, applies to dry Riesling and Spätburgunder bottlings from selected Rheingau vineyards. The vineyard classification, based on an 1867 Rheingau map, represented the first site-based quality hierarchy accepted into law in the wake of the 1971 legislation. Unlike the Charta designation, or the coming Grosses Gewächs of the VDP, the Erstes Gewächs category is available to all producers who adhere to its requirements and have a share in the selected land—which amounts to almost one-third of the entire planted area of the Rheingau—resulting in a watered-down sense of “first growth” by anyone’s standards. Erstes Gewächs , now accompanied by the logo of three arches, is legally sanctioned and therefore spelled out in full on Rheingau labels. Rheingau vineyards, whether classified by German law or considered Grosse Lage by the VDP, number as some of the most famous Riesling sites in Germany. Two monopoles of ecclesiastical origin exist: Schloss Johannisberg, planted to Riesling since 1720, and the Hattenheimer Steinberg vineyard of Kloster Eberbach, enclosed by a wall in 1760. There is also Hattenheimer Pfaffenberg, a monopole of Schloss Schönborn since the 1600s. Other great sites are of fragmented ownership, such as Kiedricher Gräfenberg, exemplified by Robert Weil; Hochheimer Hölle and Johannisberger Hölle, a shared name that indicates a rocky hill (not “hell,” the direct translation of hölle ); and the trio of great vineyards at Rüdesheim, named Berg Rottland, Berg Roseneck, and Berg Schlossberg. At the small outpost for Spätburgunder at Assmannshausen, there is one great site, Höllenberg. August Kesseler is the preeminent producer. Mosel Traditionally, Riesling from the Rheingau was bottled in brown glass, while Riesling from the Mosel was bottled in green glass. The valleys of the Mosel River and its tributaries, the Saar and Ruwer, together comprise one of Germany’s most picturesque, historic, and iconic wine regions. Cherished for the attributes of lightness and finesse it can imbue in its wines, the Mosel was for many years Europe’s largest cultivator of Riesling, until finally overtaken by the Pfalz in the mid-2000s. Talk of the Mosel conjures imagery of a winding river snaking its way across a landscape of small villages and precipitous slopes, covered in tiles of broken slate and draped with vines. Coursing between the Hunsrück hills and the Eifel Mountains, the Mosel River creates an idyllic backdrop for winegrowing, even as its best vineyards inhabit some of the most challenging terrain in the world for winegrowers. The earliest evidence of winegrowing in Germany is in the Mosel. Imported by the Romans, who founded the city of Trier in 16 BCE as a provincial capital, viticulture here first prospered at the end of the third century CE, after Probus lifted the imperial prohibition on winegrowing in Rome’s provinces. Early medieval documents detailing vineyard ownership exist from the seventh century, and the church guided its development. The St. Maximin monastery and the Bishop of Trier both owned scores of vines by the late medieval period, and it was a powerful Archbishop of Trier, Clemens Wenceslaus, who in 1786 decreed a mandatory shift to Riesling throughout the vineyard. In early modern times, the Mosel and the Rheingau became models for Riesling—they were the only two areas in Germany producing noble sweet wines with any regularity. Unlike the Rheingau, however, the Mosel began a tradition of producing lightly sweet, low-alcohol Riesling wines in the 19th century. Before the advent of sterile filtration, this could only be accomplished with a heavy dose of sulfur, and with it, the Mosel style of Kabinett Riesling was born, offering a clear alternative to the heavier dry styles of the Rheingau and elsewhere. The Mosel today produces thrilling, electric dry Riesling alongside wines with every degree of residual sugar, yet it is the light and delicate Kabinett Riesling that is its signature gift. Further, with ripeness more easily obtained in the modern era of climate change, this style is increasingly difficult to craft with a classic sense of balance. The Mosel Single-Post System The Mosel’s treacherously steep slopes often register grades of 50 to 80% and may even reach 100% or higher, spelling worry for life and limb despite advantages for the vine. Mosel growers traditionally employed their own system of vine training, the single-post system, to improve workers’ ability to traverse the dangerous hillsides. In the single-post system, growers train vines upright, without wires, employing either a vertical cordon or two canes, wrapped in a characteristic heart-shaped bow. Absent wires, vineyard workers have much more freedom of movement to navigate the difficult terrain. (Pulleys and cables are still required in some places to move machinery.) However, the system faces criticism. In order to improve airflow and reduce botrytis, leaf removal is necessary, but this increases sun exposure, which can lead to TDN-based flavors (petrol) in Riesling. Wire trellises appeared in the 20th century at larger properties, and in the post- Flurbereinigung world, the single-post system, once commonplace, has lost a lot of ground in the Mosel. The Mosel River, at 545 kilometers in length, is the longest tributary of the Rhine River. It begins in the Vosges Mountains in France, home of the Moselle AOP, and forms Luxembourg’s border with Germany. It then carves a winding path for more than 200 kilometers through Germany to the city of Koblenz, where it converges with the Rhine. Vineyards follow its every twist and turn. The modern Anbaugebiet , known simply as the Mosel, includes six Bereiche , three of which lie on the river itself: Bernkastel (the Middle Mosel), followed by Burg Cochem (the Lower Mosel, or Terrassenmosel) and Obermosel (the Upper Mosel). Two Bereiche , the Ruwertal and Saar, mark the vineyards of its two main tributaries, and a sixth, Moseltor, covers a scant handful of vines in the Saarland, near Obermosel. The 50-kilometer-long Bernkastel Bereich , named for the township of Bernkastel-Kues at its heart, holds two-thirds of the Mosel’s vineyard area; its wine-producing villages are responsible for a significant share of the Mosel’s historical fame and current reputation. Collectively, the Mosel’s six districts constitute one of Germany’s coolest climates for winegrowing, as the region crosses the 50th parallel. The moderating effect of the river and the orientation and aspect of its vineyard sites, altitude, and exposure to wind all impact growing season temperatures and the ability to produce quality wine. At this latitude, global warming notwithstanding, average annual temperatures hover right around 10° C (50° F), and the typical growing season is compressed to about 100 days. However, the tweaks and amplifications of climate that the Mosel offers can extend that period by 40 to 50 days in the best sites. The warmest vineyards in the entire valley are south- and southwest-facing slopes along the Mosel River itself, where sunlight and temperature are magnified, and such slopes produce the best wines. Rarely are north-facing slopes planted, even though viticulture expanded in the latter half of the 20th century to include flatter plains and side valleys, none of which offer enough warmth to produce high-quality Riesling. Vineyards in narrower sectors of the Mosel Valley and those at lower elevation are afforded more protection from wind, while forests cap the hillsides, acting as bulwarks against the cold air drafts that blow in from the Hunsrück and Eifel ranges. Proximity to the river helps to mitigate the danger of spring frosts, even as it creates frequent banks of autumn fog, signaling the arrival of botrytis. Soil color and composition also play a role in ripening the vine. The thin, sandy topsoil of the Mosel is typically covered with tiles of broken slate, carried up the slopes and strewn about the vineyards year after year, to collect heat and prevent erosion of the soil beneath. The soil’s trademark element, Devonian slate, helps to defuse nighttime lows and limit diurnal variation by releasing heat stored throughout the day into the canopy. Devonian slate is found in both dark blue and red variations; the effect is intensified with dark-colored slate, the more common variation. The broken, weathered soil also affords excellent drainage. In the Mosel, rainfall varies from 650 to 900 millimeters annually (26.5 to 35.5 inches), and it is evenly distributed throughout the year. Without such dry, well-drained, heat-retaining soils, ripening would be delayed. Additionally, the slate soils of the Mosel have served to limit the incursion of phylloxera. The bug is present, but it cannot thrive, leaving a few pockets of centurion vines in the valley. (Nonetheless, most vines are grafted—it is usually illegal to plant otherwise.) Extremely weathered and nutrient poor, these old, acidic slate soils can lead to nitrogen deficiency in grape must and low wine pH. The combination of resulting sulfur-derived aromas and high acidity easily leads tasters into “mineral” territory. Districts of the Mosel Bernkastel The Middle Mosel follows the winding path of the river from Trier north to Zell. One after another, the famous winegrowing villages of the region appear: Leiwen, Trittenheim, Piesport, Brauneberg, Bernkastel-Kues, Graach, Wehlen, Zeltingen, Ürzig, and Erden. This sector, spanning some 50 kilometers of river, claims around 65% of the acreage of the entire Anbaugebiet and includes many of Germany’s most renowned Riesling sites: Bernkasteler Doctor, Piesporter Goldtröpfchen, Erdener Prälat, Graacher Himmelreich, Ürziger Würzgarten, and the famous sundial (Sonnenuhr) vineyards of Wehlen and Zeltingen. The classic identity of the Mosel was etched here, but quality can vary immensely. Common Grosslagen bottlings like Piesporter Michelsberg or lesser single vineyard wines have diminished the region’s reputation and the price of its best wines. One can even see this in the local architecture. Houses from a century ago, with their slate-tiled roofs, reflect past wealth, while modern construction evokes more modest means. Nonetheless, some of the Mosel’s greatest and most timeless wines emerge from this region, from benchmark producers like Joh. Jos. Prüm, Reinhold Haart, Reichsgraf von Kesselstatt, and Dr. Loosen; meanwhile, upstarts with more recent reputations, like Ansgar Clüsserath, Daniel Vollenweider, and Clemens-Busch, are revitalizing the Mosel’s image. Burg Cochem The Lower Mosel stretches from Zell northward through Cochem to Koblenz, at the border of the Mittelrhein Anbaugebiet where the Mosel River joins the Rhine. The slopes here are even more dizzyingly steep, with grades easily reaching 70% or more. The region, also known as the Terrassenmosel, still hides some old, narrow hillside terraces, originally built by Romans and painstakingly maintained through the centuries, but most of these relics were obliterated with the Flurbereinigung campaign, which leveled and widened hillsides to permit machines. Winningen is a key winegrowing village, home to star producer Heymann-Löwenstein and the premier vineyard site Uhlen. Reinhard Heymann-Löwenstein applied for Germany’s first three single-vineyard PDOs, for three separate parcels within Uhlen: Blaufüsser Lay, Roth Lay, and Laubach. These were approved by the EU in 2018. The outspoken intellectual also has a theory as to the Middle Mosel’s superiority over his more remote stretch of river: “The smart kids from Winningen went to the city (Koblenz). We were left with the stupid kids that made bad wine.” Obermosel The Upper Mosel b ereiche occupies the right bank of the Mosel River from just south of Trier to the French border. (The left bank is in Luxembourg.) This sector of the Mosel sits, with Chablis and Champagne, within the Paris Basin, atop a calcareous soil makeup that replaces the Devonian slate of the Middle and Lower Mosel. Riesling takes a backseat in Obermosel to Elbling, an ancient white grape variety that produces simple, fruity whites and refreshing sparkling wines. Ruwertal The Ruwer is a small tributary of the Mosel River, a stream connecting to the Middle Mosel between Trier and Trittenheim. A slightly cooler region than the Middle Mosel, the Ruwertal has a similar slate soil composition and contains about 200 hectares of vines, mostly Riesling. The church’s historical connection to viticulture is clear here: the Benedictine St. Maximin monastery, so important to medieval viticulture in the Mosel, based its winemaking operations here, at (Maximin) Grünhaus, as early as the 900s. The estate, still in operation and now owned by the von Schubert family, is an Ortsteil and one of the Ruwer’s best wine producers. The other great estate of the Ruwertal, Karthäuserhof in Eitelsbach, also claims an ecclesiastical origin under the domaine of Carthusian monks. Saar A small region south of Trier, the Saar Bereich inhabits the banks of the Saar River, a Mosel tributary. The slate hills are steep and windswept here, but most vineyards do not line the river, which flows almost directly north. Despite its more southerly location, the Saar is therefore one of the coolest areas of the Mosel. Achieving ripeness can be a challenge in cool vintages and the wines—again, mostly Riesling—are often even more austere and acid-driven than those from the Middle Mosel. The best vineyards are the south-facing Saarburger Rausch, the neighboring Hörecker and Altenberg on the Saar River in Kanzem, and the legendary Scharzhofberg in Wiltingen. Scharzhofberg is likely the most famous site in the Mosel—or in all of Germany. Egon Müller is its most lauded producer. Moseltor Geologically connected to the Upper Mosel, with limestone rather than slate soils, Moseltor falls on the other side of a state boundary and is therefore considered a separate Bereich . There are only three winegrowing villages and a handful of vineyards. Rheinhessen Home to one-quarter of Germany’s land under vine, the Rheinhessen is the country’s biggest winegrowing region. The Anbaugebiet spans a large area south of the Rheingau and north of the Pfalz, with the Nahe on its western border and Hessische-Bergstrasse a few kilometers to the east. The distance from the city of Worms at its southern end to its northernmost point at Mainz, the Rheinland-Pfalz state capital, is nearly 50 kilometers. The Rhine River creates a natural border with the Rheingau as well as its eastern boundary, but for much of the region’s 30-kilometer-wide area, the river’s influence is not markedly felt. In such a large area, there is a great diversity of mesoclimates and soils, and no single climatic feature—a river’s moderating influence, or the aspect of a slope—can adequately explain prevailing conditions throughout the entire Anbaugebiet . As such, there is a diversity of grape varieties and no single Rheinhessen style, save for a self-inflicted image: Rheinhessen is known as the land of Liebfraumilch, a region committed to quantity over quality wine. Liebfrau(en)milch "Our Lady’s Milk" likely got its start as a real product of the Liebfrau monastery in Worms in the 18th century. From the 1950s to 1980s, however, it was Germany’s most famous wine brand in the English-speaking world. The 1971 wine law allowed Nahe, Pfalz, Rheingau, and Rheinhessen to produce it, requiring it to contain at least 70% of the following varieties: Riesling, Müller-Thurgau, Silvaner, and Kerner. The wines must contain at least 18 grams per liter of residual sugar, and varietal labeling is not allowed. There is one area historically associated with quality winegrowing in the Rheinhessen: the Roter Hang, a “red hill” of clay and weathered red sandstone ( Rotliegendes ) on the left bank of the Rhine between the villages of Nierstein and Nackenheim. It lies within a larger span of eastern exposures, the Rheinterrasse , which extends south of Nierstein through the village of Oppenheim. Protected from the frost and winds that sweep through much of the Rheinhessen and home to the famed vineyards Pettenthal and Rothenberg, the Roter Hang is a slim, east-facing slope reaching 70 to 80% grade, but it is hardly representative of the entire Anbaugebiet. Riesling from the Roter Hang fetched prices in line with those of the Rheingau in the 19th century—in fact, the most expensive wine aboard the doomed Titanic was a Niersteiner Riesling—but the remainder of the Rheinhessen became better known in the 20th century as a reservoir of uninteresting crossings and unremarkable wines. By the 1970s, most Rheinhessen grapes were directed to off-dry-to-semi-sweet generic Liebfraumilch blends. Liebfraumilch, which originated as a specialty of Worms, became a sugary, bastardized product that debased Germany’s reputation as a wine producer. Additionally, the 1971 wine law appropriated the name of the small village of Nierstein for one of three Rheinhessen Bereiche , diminishing its value. (Niersteiner Gutes Domtal, a collective site introduced in 1971, came to markets in force.) The Rheinhessen name, including that of its most spectacular stretch of vineyards, was tarnished. In the last two decades of the 20th century, however, a new spirit arose. In areas never seriously considered promising, new voices arrived on the scene. Klaus-Peter Keller and Philipp Wittmann, whose estates share access to several vineyards in the southern Wonnegau Bereich , led the charge. Their best vineyards, including several Grosse Lage sites, appear as gently undulating fields rather than dramatic slopes. (In the village of Westhofen they have neighboring parcels in Kirchspiel, Morstein, and Brunnenhäuschen; in Flörsheim-Dalsheim, Keller also maintains plots in Bürgel and Hubacker.) Bereft of the Rhine’s influence, the limestone plateaus and low valleys of the Rheinhessen interior have the potential to create world-class wines, amidst a nearly treeless patchwork of agricultural pursuits. The vineyards appear unspectacular, but some of the best dry Riesling wines in the world today come from the limestone and loess soils in the Bereich of Wonnegau. (Keller sources the most expensive dry Riesling produced in Germany, “G-Max,” from an undisclosed parcel in the region.) Rheinhessen’s third Bereich , Bingen, is named for the town at its northwestern corner and covers much of the western reaches of the Anbaugebiet . The region lacks the star power Wonnegau currently enjoys, but there are clusters of good sites in the villages of Bingen and Siefersheim, the latter anchored by the recent successes of Wagner-Stempel. Keller, Wittmann, Wagner-Stempel, the biodynamic Kühling-Gillot in the Roter Hang , and a select few others represent an explosive new force in German Riesling. Typically, they focus on dry styles and promote spontaneous fermentation as a stylistic choice. They belong to Message in a Bottle, an organization of over two dozen young producers in the region committed to raising the region’s potential and image, internally and internationally. There are classicists with longer track records of quality wines, such as the Gunderloch estate, which owns three-quarters of Nackenheimer Rothenberg, but much of the energy and excitement today in Rheinhessen is with the experimenters and iconoclasts. As Rheinhessen throws off its old image as a bulk producer, Riesling is not the only beneficiary. It asserted itself as the Rheinhessen’s most planted grape as recently as 2013—Rheinhessen held onto Müller-Thurgau as its chief variety longer than any other major Anbaugebiet —but it only accounts for 16% of the total vineyard. Dry Silvaner is a regional specialty, and the Rheinhessen has more Silvaner planted than any other region in the world, including Franken. Scheurebe, originally bred at Alzey in the Rheinhessen, maintains a presence and is currently undergoing a small revival of interest domestically. And despite the dangers of frost and wind, the Rheinhessen is a warmer region and it is experiencing a surge in interest for Spätburgunder and the white and grey Burgundy varieties. Blue Nun and Liebfraumilch cast a long shadow over the Rheinhessen, but today one is just as likely to find quality wines—from Germany's most diverse selection of varieties—here as anywhere else in the country. Pfalz With nearly one-quarter of Germany’s 102,000 hectares of vines, the Pfalz holds Germany’s second-largest cache of vineyards, second only to the Rheinhessen, and commands the country’s largest acreage of Riesling. There is more Riesling in the Pfalz than in Alsace, or in the whole country of Austria, or Australia, or the United States. In comparison to northerly regions like the Mosel, the Pfalz is warm and sunny, with a modern style of Riesling that is resoundingly dry, offering more body, weight, and alcohol than any other classic Riesling region in Germany. Unlike the Rheingau or Mosel, however, the Pfalz is multidimensional: Dornfelder, Müller-Thurgau, and Portugieser follow Riesling in sheer quantities, while the Pfalz’s great vineyards also find room for Spätburgunder, Grauburgunder, Weissburgunder, Scheurebe, and more. (Of these, three—Riesling, Spätburgunder, and Weissburgunder—are currently authorized for VDP Grosse Lage bottlings.) Like the Rheinhessen, this broad region once harbored only a sliver of renowned vineyards, but today good and great wines are made throughout it. Geographically, the Pfalz lies between Rheinhessen and Alsace. (The region’s shifting political allegiance between France and Germany over the past 200 years actually leaves its southernmost vineyards just across the French border in the Alsatian town of Wissembourg.) The Pfalz Anbaugebiet is on the western side of the Upper Rhine Plain, with its best vineyard sites creeping up the Haardt hills—a northern, forest-capped extension of the Vosges Mountains. It is divided into two Bereiche : the Mittelhaardt-Deutsche Weinstrasse and the Südliche Weinstrasse, both of which take their name from the “wine route,” a road opened in 1935 to link the region’s picturesque villages and boost tourism. The northern sector, the Mittelhaardt, begins about 20 kilometers south of Worms and encompasses many of the Pfalz’s most historic and famous winegrowing villages, including Kallstadt, Ungestein, Forst, Deidesheim, Ruppertsberg, and Gimmeldingen. The Südliche (southern) Weinstrasse picks up just south of the city of Neustadt and extends through Schweigen at the Alsatian border. In the Mittelhaardt, the landscape is reminiscent of the Côte d’Or. Small medieval villages, crowned by church steeples, dot the plain below the east-facing Haardt hills, where the best vineyards sit mid-slope and bask in morning sun, before they are enveloped in the long evening shadow of the Palatinate Forest treeline. Many of the Mittelhaardt’s modern Grosse Lage sites were mapped in the 1828 Bavarian Land Registry and have ecclesiastical origins in the 12th and 13th centuries. As in Burgundy, they are often clustered together; the greatest concentration of Grosse and Erste Lage sites occupies a small band of slope between Forst and Deidesheim. And just as the Côte d’Or’s ownership has fractured since the era of Napoleon, so to has the Pfalz witnessed a subdividing of vineyard parcels with every new generation—a trend the German government has attempted to curb by restructuring parcel ownership through its Flurbereinigung campaign, with more successes in the flatter, machine-worked vineyards of the Upper Rhine Plain than the premier sites of the Haardt hillsides. In fact, some of the best Einzellagen in the entire Pfalz region have maintained tight boundaries and tiny parcel ownership despite the 1971 wine law and reallocation under Flurbereinigung. The Grosse Lage vineyards Hohenmorgen in Deidesheim and Freundstück in Forst are both under five hectares in size. At 3.7 hectares, Forster Kirchenstück—the “Church parcel”—is the finest, warmest, and most uniform site in the Mittelhaardt, if not the entire Anbaugebiet . Shared by eight owners, enclosed by a small sandstone wall, and planted entirely to Riesling, the small vineyard was classified in 1828 as the Bavarian kingdom’s best and sits snugly above the village, nestled between the Grosse Lagen Freundstück, Jesuitengarten, and Ungeheur. Other important sites of the Mittelhaardt include Königsbacher Idig and Gimmeldinger Mandelgarten, both south of Deidesheim, and Kallstadter Saumagen, an amphitheater-like suntrap and the finest site north of Forst. The great hillside vineyards of the Mittelhaardt, sun-drenched and protected from wind and rain by the Drachenfels and other low peaks of the Haardt hills, are rich in history and serve as modern redoubts for exemplary dry Riesling; meanwhile, in the flatter Upper Rhine Plain of the Mittelhaardt, the lion’s share of ordinary Pfalz wines are farmed. As the Mittelhaardt has historically been the most important sector of the Pfalz, Mittelhaardt-based producers have long been regarded as standard-bearers for quality in the region. The “three Bs”—Reichsrat von Buhl, Bürklin-Wolf, and Bassermann-Jordan—have important legacies and continue to produce significant quantities of fine wine. (One can compare them side by side only in one vineyard: Kirchenstück.) Koehler-Ruprecht has single-handedly manufactured the reputation of Saumagen, and Müller-Catoir in the village of Haardt continues to prove that classically sweet wines have their place in the Pfalz, producing Riesling, Scheurebe, and Rieslaner in a lusher style. Weingut von Winning is a modern superstar, even as the estate draws criticism for adding new barriques and tonneaux to a Riesling cellar. Yet several of the Pfalz’s most important producers today hail from an unlikely location: the south. Until recently, the Südliche Weinstrasse was a region in decline. The warm, sunny southern sector of the Pfalz was a cheap source of bulk wines prior to the passage of the 1971 wine law, and much of its output wound up in Mosel négociant blends. The idea of Qualitätswein from a single region sunk its fortunes, and vineyards fell into disrepair or were abandoned outright. A small series of serious producers, including Ökonomierat Rebholz, Dr. Wehrheim, and Friedrich Becker, resurrected the region’s fortunes by the mid-2000s. The rediscovery of sites of great potential, like the Birkweiler Kastanienbusch, an 86-hectare, south-facing slope hidden among the Haardt hills, gave new hope to the region. Less tied to tradition than the Mittelhaardt, the southern Pfalz has provided a more diverse vineyard, with some of Germany’s best examples of Weissburgunder and Spätburgunder appearing in vineyards like Siebeldinger im Sonnenschein and Schweiger Kammerberg. In the Südliche Weinstrasse, exposures are more varied, and the best vineyards are frequently steeper than those of the Mittelhaardt. Here, the winegrowing villages are tucked into the hills, rather than aligned neatly along their flank. Pfalz Soil and Geology As in Alsace, one of the most intriguing aspects of the Pfalz for winegrowers is in its complex geology and soil patterns. Neighboring parcels may have entirely different soil compositions; large vineyards may show multiple, distinct geological underpinnings. It’s complicated, and the result of many long years of geological activity and upheaval. Some 250 million years ago, primordial rivers swept alluvial sediment—sand, clay, and silt—into the vast plain that would one day become the Pfalz. Compacted over eons and colored by iron oxide, red sandstone today provides the foundation for the Palatinate forest and the Haardt hills. Additionally, volcanic activity pushed magma to the surface of the earth’s crust, resulting in layers of basalt, and some 50 million years ago, tectonic activity and the rise of the Alps caused the Rhine basin to collapse. The Haardt hills on the west and the mountains of the Odenwald on the east rose sharply as the land between them sunk and filled with seawater. Over time, the area dried up again, but traces of the sea remained: calcareous deposits from this period of submersion formed limestone ( Kalkstein ) and shell-limestone ( Muschelkalk ). As millions of years passed slowly by, water, erosion , and wind filled the Rhine basin with sand, gravel, and loess—the latter is the Pfalz’s youngest soil, arriving after the last ice age. During that glacial age, rivers of ice advanced into Europe, grinding primary rock beneath them into pulverized, fine grains. As the glaciers retreated with warming temperatures, this dusty combination of pulverized rock and other small sediments—loess—was unleashed upon the winds, and much of the soil settled beneath the Palatinate Forest in Pfalz. Once covered by vegetation, the loess held firmly in place; today, it is one of the few truly arable soil types still cherished for wine production. Franken The modern Anbaugebiet of Franken lies within the federal state of Bavaria, a region better known for beer than wine. (This is, after all, the part of Germany that produced the Reinheitsgebot in the 16th century.) Today, it ranks sixth among Germany’s Anbaugebiete in terms of total vineyard acreage. Franken lies on the Main River, a small Rhine tributary, some 130 kilometers east of the Rheingau. With its inland location, absent the moderating force of a major river, Franken’s climate is the most sharply continental of all of Germany’s southwestern regions, with very clearly defined seasons, short and hot summers, and bitterly cold winters. As in Washington State, winter’s severity threatens to kill vines, and spring frosts are an annual plague on productivity. Franken’s climate has never been particularly kind to Riesling, which occupies only 4% of its 6,100 planted hectares and needs the warmest south-facing slopes to thrive. Winter-hardy crossings are popular in the region. The most traditional variety associated with the region, is the mid-ripening Silvaner, which migrated from Austria to Franken during a period of deep, unsettling cold in Europe. Today, it is Franken’s most planted grape, however, at 25% of the region's plantings. Franken Silvaner is bottled in the traditional, squat Bocksbeutel. The Franken white wine style has traditionally been oriented toward the production of bone dry, austere wines. Silvaner is the most important quality grape, followed by a trickle of Riesling, Weissburgunder, and the occasional compelling red Spätburgunder or Frühburgunder. However, most basic “Frankenwein” is still nameless, blended from Müller-Thurgau, Bacchus, Kerner, and the like. Franken Silvaner, not unlike Austrian Grüner Veltliner, can produce lighter, slightly herbal, spicy wines in Franken’s more common sites and heavy, full-bodied wines in the premiere Grosse Lage vineyards—just as in Austria, however, the current trend is to limit alcohol to levels below the 14 to 15% mark in order to retain freshness in the top wines. While Silvaner is a grape that can easily lose varietal character with high yields, its classic hallmarks of phenolics, herbal notes, and subtle aromatics shine through with care and reduced crops. As with Riesling, new oak rarely factors into Franken Silvaner wines, but large barrels, concrete eggs, long lees aging, malolactic fermentation, and skin contact are all in play. Only the fashionable technique of spontaneous fermentation shows mixed results with Silvaner—Riesling has the acidity to taste dry if a wild ferment gets stuck at 6 or 7 grams per liter of residual sugar; Silvaner does not. Bottled in the traditional, squat Bocksbeutel —allegedly shaped like a Roman canteen or, yes, a sheep’s scrotum—Franken Silvaner is a difficult wine to perfect but a truly distinctive local specialty. First planted by Cistercian monks in Franken in 1659, the grape became the most important variety in Germany, eventually encompassing one-third of the entire national vineyard. It lost its top spot to Müller-Thurgau in 1969, yet Franken producers stubbornly hang on to this diminishing local treasure. In Franken, there are three Bereiche: Mainviereck, Maindreieck, and Steigerwald. The westernmost reaches of the Anbaugebiet are in Mainviereck, or the “four-sided Main,” where the river’s flow approximates a rectangular shape. Soils here are typically composed of weathered red sandstone, and the climate is gentler than in areas further east. It has therefore emerged as the only natural home for Pinot Noir in Franken. The villages of Klingenberg and Bürgstadt have earned reputations for quality red wine, while marking the earliest known episodes of winegrowing in Franken, which date back to the 8th century. Bürgstadt’s Rudolf Fürst is the top name for Spätburgunder in Franken. In the center of Franken, the Main River’s course appears to form a triangle—this is the Maindreieck, or “three-sided Main.” With the city of Würzburg on its western edge, Maindreieck produces almost three-quarters of Franken’s wine, from shell-limestone soils. Würzburg itself has always been the commercial center of the region, and its famous Stein vineyard, even at 85 hectares in size, has captivated wine drinkers for centuries. A warm, south-facing limestone and loess slope overlooking the Main, Würzburger Stein is planted primarily to Riesling and Silvaner; it produces some of Franken’s top examples of both grapes with a touch of trademark smokiness but, like other massive grand cru -styled vineyards, its parcels vary dramatically in intrinsic worth. (It also showcases the German willingness to manipulate terrain: the soils here have been replenished and replaced over the course of hundreds of years.) The most important landholders of Stein are Juliusspital, Franken’s largest producer, and Bürgerspital—both charitable hospital ( Spital ) foundations financed by large winemaking operations. The last Bereich, Steigerwald, is located on the eastern end of Franken. Its vineyards are often removed from the immediate environs of the Main River and less subject to humidity and botrytis. With vineyards on the edge of the Steigerwald mountain forest, reaching almost 400 meters in elevation, this is the highest and coolest district in Franken. However, the region’s black, gypsum-laced Keuper soils mitigate low temperatures by warming the vines at night—so much so that vines can often produce quality wines even on north-facing slopes. Castell, where Silvaner first appeared in Germany, and Iphofen are the most important villages of the Steigerwald. The Main River has a tributary, the Tauber River, which converges with it just west of Homburg. The 1971 wine law divided vineyards in the Taubertal, despite sharing similar climate and soil profiles, among three Anbaugebiete : Franken, Baden, and Württemberg. Thus, Baden has a Tauberfranken Bereich , Württemberg has a small slice of the Taubertal near the village of Bad Mergentheim, and a portion of the region remains in the Maindreieck. Baden and Franken producers from the region have the right to bottle in a Bocksbeutel ; Württemberg producers do not. A historic region, around 1,000 hectares of vineyards exist, but the climate here is quite marginal for quality grapes, while sunlight hours are fewer here than in any of the three neighboring regions. Silvaner and Riesling are popular varieties, produced in the image of Franken. Nahe The Nahe region, a rolling landscape of vineyards, orchards, meadows, and farms, lies west of Rheinhessen and south of the Rheingau, with the narrow Hünsruck Hochwald highland forest forming its natural western border and separating it from the Mosel Valley. The Nahe is at a geological crossroads, positioned at the intersection of the Mainz and Saar-Nahe Basins and the Rhenish Massif, which comprises the slate Hunsrück hills of the Mosel Valley and the low Taunus and Eifel Mountains of the Rheingau and Ahr. With great variation in topography, soils, and geology, it is not a region from which to expect homogeneity in landscape or wine. The region also falls in a transitional zone between maritime and continental climatic influences. Protected from wind and weather on the north and west by wooded mountains, the region’s climate remains mild and dry—average annual rainfall is around 500 millimeters (about 20 inches), making the Nahe Germany’s driest winegrowing climate. Most precipitation occurs in the summer months rather than over harvest, and frosts are rare. The region itself is named for the Nahe River, a tributary of the Rhine, and most Nahe vineyards are cultivated in the handful of river valleys that intersect the region. The best vineyards are generally located along the course of the Nahe River, but there are hidden pockets of good and even great vineyards in the smaller transverse valleys of its northern tributaries, like the Gräfenbach and Trollbach streams. In the southern Nahe, viticulture occurs sporadically in the Glan and Alsenz river valleys, but memories of these once-important winegrowing regions have dimmed. The Nahe took its modern shape with the 1971 wine law and now harbors a scattered collection of vines—about 4,200 hectares in total, making the Nahe Germany’s seventh-largest winegrowing region in terms of acreage. As in much of Germany, white grapes are dominant, comprising about 85% of the total area under vine, and Riesling is the star. In the 1960s, the inclination to plant any number of crossings, from Bacchus to Scheurebe to Müller-Thurgau, diversified the Nahe vineyard, even as it lowered its potential. Today, however, Riesling is the only variety permitted by the VDP for Grosse Lage wines. Once-popular Müller-Thurgau and Silvaner have been steadily diminishing in recent years, at the expense of Riesling and red grapes like Dornfelder and Spätburgunder. With refocused attention on Riesling, the best Nahe producers prefer to explore the region’s great geological diversity through the lens of a single variety. There is only one Bereich in Nahe—Nahetal—but the region consists of at least three distinct, classic subregions renowned for quality Riesling along the Nahe River itself: the Upper, Middle, and Lower Nahe. (The vineyards surrounding Bad Kreuznach, which divides the Middle and Lower Nahe, are sometimes considered a separate subregion.) In the Upper and Middle Nahe sectors, the river meanders eastward for 25 kilometers, with vineyards generally planted on dramatic, south-facing slopes along its northern bank. In proximity to the Hunsrück hills, climate tends to be slightly cooler than in the Lower Nahe. The Upper Nahe sector extends from the villages of Monzingen and Martinstein at the far western end of the Anbaugebiet to the small town of Schlossböckelheim. At Monzingen, the Nahe River Valley is wider and slightly warmer, and there are good sites for Riesling. (Unfortunately, its best and most historic site, Frühlingsplätzchen, was expanded from less than 8 hectares to 64 with the 1971 wine law, and it can no longer be considered exemplary in its entirety.) Emrich-Schönleber, based in Monzingen, is the preeminent producer of the Upper Nahe, and in the 21st century, the Shäfer-Fröhlich estate of Bockenau, a village in the Upper Nahe’s hinterlands nearest the Hünsruck hills, rapidly ascended into the ranks of Nahe nobility. The Middle Nahe follows the course of the river eastward for 15 kilometers from Schlossböckelheim to Bad Kreuznach, the Nahe’s largest town and the commercial center of the region’s wine trade. The river narrows and the valley cools just west of Schlossböckelheim, flowing by Oberhausen, Niederhausen (where the Nahe widens briefly again at a hydroelectric dam), Norheim, and the massive, sheer Rotenfels porphyry cliffs of Traisen before turning sharply northward at Bad Münster am Stein, a spa town ( bad means bath) and southern suburb of Bad Kreuznach. The towns of the Middle Nahe are the most famous winegrowing villages of the Nahe, with numerous Grosse Lage sites, including Niederhauser Hermannshöhle, Schlossböckelheimer Kupfergrube, Schlossböckelheimer Felsenberg, Norheimer Dellchen, Traiser Bastei, and Oberhauser Brücke, the last of these a monopole of Nahe’s foremost producer, Weingut Dönnhoff. Situated on weathered volcanic soils, slate, limestone, and schist, these great vineyards were recognized and classified according to property tax valuations as early as 1901, in a map depicting the vineyard areas in the district of Koblenz. The state winery of Niederhausen-Schlossböckelheim, now known as Gut Hermannsberg, shepherded the reputation of many of these sites through a difficult 20th century, yet it is Dönnhoff who provides the clearest emblem of uncompromising wine quality today. From these vineyards, sweeter Riesling wines can be pure and slim, recalling the Mosel, and top dry examples show concentration without corpulence. Just north of Bad Kreuznach, the soil composition becomes heavier with clay and loess, and the Lower Nahe stretches from the town’s northern limits to the river’s confluence with the Rhine at Bingen, marking the tripoint of the Rheinhessen, the Rheingau, and the Nahe Anbaugebiete . The Lower Nahe is a warmer region than either the Upper or Middle Nahe, with more climatic similarity to the neighboring Rheinhessen than the cooler Hunsrück hills to the west. Riesling styles from the Lower Nahe share the fuller body and more opulent style of the Rheinhessen, and Spätburgunder performs best in the Lower Nahe, even as it is still excluded from Grosse Lage vineyards. From the village of Laubenheim northward, the soil mixture shifts from deeper clay and loess to the slate and quartzite more common across the Rhine. The Lower Nahe’s most renowned winegrowing villages lie in this northern sector: Münster-Sarmsheim, Dorsheim, and Laubenheim itself. Schlossgut Diel, encamped in the nearby town of Burg Layen at a partially ruined castle (the sort that affords rich aristocrats seemingly greater prestige when unrepaired) is the reigning producer of the Lower Nahe. At a recent visit to the estate, Armin Diel summed up the Nahe’s progress nicely, explaining, “Twenty-five years ago, there was no real idea of what the Nahe style was. Today, that has changed.” Baden The winegrowing region of Baden, Germany’s third-largest Anbaugebiet , lines the eastern half of the Upper Rhine Valley and runs parallel to Alsace and the Pfalz, between the Rhine River and the Black Forest. Baden extends for nearly 400 kilometers and is divided into nine diverse Bereiche , scattered from the shores of Lake Constance, which separates Germany and Switzerland, to the edge of the Odenwald hills in Hessische-Bergstrasse and the Tauber River Valley, near Würzburg in Franken. So while it is difficult to generalize about the region’s wines, its greatest successes have been with varieties rooted in Burgundy: Weissburgunder, Grauburgunder, and above all, Spätburgunder. The trio accounts for three of Baden’s four most planted grapes, and Spätburgunder alone makes up over one-third of Baden’s almost 16,000 hectares under vine. White grapes still account for a slim majority overall, however. In the northerly Bereiche of Tauberfranken, Badische Bergstrasse, and Kraichgau, and in the Bodensee (the German name for Lake Constance) Bereich in the south, Müller-Thurgau still reigns as the top variety, making it the second most planted variety overall in Baden. (On the Swiss side of Lake Constance is the small winegrowing canton of Thurgau, where the grape’s breeder Hermann Müller was born.) Reinforcing its proximity to Switzerland, more than 1,000 hectares of Gutedel (Chasselas) remain in Baden. In Germany, the Swiss grape is cultivated almost exclusively in the Markgräferland Bereiche at Baden’s southernmost point, where the Anbaugebiet meets the Swiss city of Basel and the French border. Pinot Noir allegedly arrived in Baden in the escort of Carolingian Emperor Charles the Fat, who planted it on the north shores of Lake Constance in 884. In over a thousand years, the center of German Pinot Noir production didn’t move far, landing in four Baden Bereiche between the city of Freiburg and the Black Forest bath town of Baden-Baden. From north to south, they are Ortenau, Breisgau, Kaiserstuhl, and Tuniberg. As in Alsace, these areas have dynamic soil profiles, with various granitic, volcanic, calcareous, and loess formations. On weathered limestone, with their backs against the Black Forest, 20 kilometers or more from the Rhine, the vineyards of Breisgau can produce an almost Côte de Nuits-like style of Pinot Noir. (See the wines of the late Bernhard Huber in Malterdingen.) In the Kaiserstuhl, however, the weather warms, the wines become more muscular, and the vines lie nearly within reach of the river’s banks. The compact district, which occupies a chain of hills rising steeply above the river west of Freiburg, supplies some of the Upper Rhine Valley’s most splendid, dramatic scenery—and the Kaiserstuhl is likewise Baden’s most celebrated zone for Spätburgunder. The Kaiserstuhl hills crown an extinct volcano, draped in varying layers of loess. The district experiences Germany’s warmest and sunniest winegrowing climate—in warm vintages, Spätburgunder passing the 15% mark is not unheard of—and it is protected from wet weather by the rain shadow of the Vosges Mountains. Kaiserstuhl’s best Spätburgunder sites are often its steepest, with purer volcanic soils rather than windblown loess, such as Achkarrer Schlossberg and Ihringer Winklerberg, Germany’s hottest vineyard. If anything, Kaiserstuhl’s greatest viticultural liability is one sommeliers don’t usually associate with Germany: too much sun, too much heat, too much potential alcohol. Kaiserstuhl has a subregion of sorts, the Tuniberg Bereich , which formally separated from Kaiserstuhl in 1991. Situated on calcareous rather than volcanic subsoil, Tuniberg has a more thorough distribution of loess and loess-loam topsoils, but its wines have not achieved the same fame as those of Kaiserstuhl. Overall, the Baden style of Spätburgunder, exemplified by the Kaiserstuhl wines, is ripe and robust. These wines are richer in body and lower in acidity than Ahr examples. Chaptalization is still practiced, even as Baden is the only German Anbaugebiet that enters the EU’s Climate Zone B, with lower limits on the amount of sugar that may be added to bolster alcohol. In the warmer climate, partial whole-cluster fermentations are not uncommon. Luxurious treatment in new oak is a frequent feature for the best wines—often it is French in origin, but Baden oak from the Black Forest is a common sight in cellars as well (which, after all, is essentially Vosges oak, save for a national boundary). In the Baden vineyard, an important reconsideration involves the adoption of Dijon clones, once thought essential to success in the Burgundy model. As in Russian River, Baden is just too warm for these grapes, and producers are starting to take a fresh look at Swiss Mariafeld clones and some new German clones, newly selected for quality rather than yield. Alongside Spätburgunder, the VDP permits the production of Weissburgunder, Grauburgunder, Riesling, and Chardonnay as Grosse Lage wines throughout Baden. Weissburgunder is produced in nearly as a wide a range of styles as Chardonnay. Basic examples are usually fresh and fairly neutral while top Grosse Lage wines gain weight, incurring malolactic fermentation and new oak aging. Some are oxidative in style and some are more reductive, in the manner of top white Burgundy. The barrique -fermented, richer style of Weissburgunder is especially prevalent among producers in Kaiserstuhl, where the grape comprises about 10% of the total production. Grauburgunder, which has achieved more success in Baden than elsewhere in Germany, is typically dry and golden in color. Skin contact, drawing out Pinot Gris’ coppery tones, is routine. Grosse Lage Grauburgunder is rarely produced outside of Baden, and here it is almost always dry. (Sweeter styles, when made, are usually labeled under the synonym Ruländer.) Finally, great full-bodied Riesling can be produced in Baden, particularly in Ortenau and Kraichgau, recalling the short distance to Alsace. But there is little viticultural exchange; as one Baden winemaker confides, vintners on either side of the border rarely cross the river. Württemberg Württemberg, one of Germany’s largest growing regions, is also largely undiscovered by international audiences. As Baden’s neighbor, the southerly Anbaugebiet of Württemberg specializes in red wines to a degree exceeded by none other than the tiny Ahr. It represents Germany’s fourth-largest collection of vineyards, with over 11,000 hectares of vines, and 70% of its total acreage is devoted to red grapes. But thus far, the only real international success for German red wine to date has been Pinot Noir, which Baden and the Ahr have rallied behind. Not so with Württemberg: the second most planted grape in this diverse region is Trollinger, better known as Schiava in Italy. Popular domestically, Trollinger is unlikely to win international audiences over. The region contains a significant amount of Lemberger (Blaufränkisch), which critics admit is far likelier than Dornfelder to achieve greatness, but it is subject to marketing woes—its German name is unknown, leaving producers to vacillate over promoting its local moniker or supporting the more well-known Austrian name. Schwarzriesling (Meunier) is a local specialty; German cultivation of the Champagne grape is almost exclusive to Württemberg, where it typically produces light, fruity, quaffable wines. Riesling is the most planted white grape in the region and most planted grape overall. Schillerwein, a specialized style of rosé wine, is unique to the Württemberg region. Alongside pink Champagne, it is one of the few styles of European rosés for which blending is permitted. For Schillerwein, it is the rule. Historically, the pale pink wine was composed of a field blend of red and white grapes, crushed and fermented together. Today, the red and white lots are blended prior to fermentation to achieve the wine’s bright rosy color—its name derives from the German verb schillern , which means to shimmer or scintillate. They are typically light, trocken or halbtrocken in style, and contain 11 to 12.5% finished alcohol. In Württemberg, where per capita drinking is highest in all of Germany, the wine is gulped rather than sipped, traditionally from stemless glass mugs common in the region’s wine taverns. Like Baden, Württemberg is divided into far-flung sectors. It contains a cluster of northern Bereiche situated around the cities of Stuttgart and Heilbronn, and a small set of vineyards along the north shores of Lake Constance. In the north, vines are cultivated along the Neckar River and its tributaries, such as the Kocher, Jagst, Tauber, and Rems. (The Neckar itself is a major tributary of the Rhine; the rivers meet just south of Worms.) Württemberg’s largest concentration of vineyards is in the Württembergisch Unterland Bereich between the capital city of Stuttgart and Heilbronn, and, due to its proximity to the population, there is an up-and-coming set of independent, quality-minded projects in the Remstal-Stuttgart Bereich , just east of the capital. Nearly three-quarters of the production, however, is still concentrated in the hands of regional cooperatives. One of Württemberg’s most famous estate producers is Weingut Graf Neipperg of Schwaigern. Owner Karl Neipperg is the latest in a long line of lords whose presence in Württemberg can be traced to the 12th century; however, his brother, Stephan von Neipperg of Saint-Émilion, is easily the more widely recognized figure in the wine world today. Ahr One of Germany’s smallest and most northerly winegrowing regions, the Ahr Valley has nonetheless earned a reputation as one of the country’s best spots for Spätburgunder. The grape, along with its early-ripening mutation Frühburgunder, accounts for almost 70% of the Ahr’s planted acreage. (In contrast, Riesling accounts for only 8% of the total Ahr vineyard.) The region may be tiny, but the Pinot Noir grape maintains a tighter grip on vineyards here than anywhere else in Germany. And it has come a long way. In his 1988 book Life After Liebfraumilch: Understanding German Fine Wine , Stuart Pigott denuded Ahr reds, labeling the category as “presumptuous rosés” in a “puddle of mediocrity.” Robert Parker was even less charitable, writing off German Spätburgunder entirely as “abortive.” (Nice, Bob.) Today, top Ahr Spätburgunder from the estates of Jean Stodden, Meyer-Näkel, J.J. Adeneuer, and others experiences great domestic and international demand, commanding high prices and acclaim. The terroir is distinctive: Ahr Spätburgunder is a rare example of slate-grown Pinot Noir, and its admirers attribute a smoky undertone to this unique union of grape and soil. The Ahr River is really more of a creek, meandering 25 kilometers eastward from Altenahr at the region’s western edge through Ahrweiler, Walporzeim, and Bad Neuenahr, finally meeting the Rhine near Heimersheim. Its vineyards span about 125 meters in elevation. The slopes here can be just as steep—reaching 60 to 70% grade or more—and slate-covered as those in the Mosel, but the river is too small and removed from the vineyards to have any great impact on vineyard temperature and vine. For ease of comparison, growers divide the valley into the Upper Ahr west of Walporzheim and the Lower Ahr, spanning the remaining distance to the river’s confluence with the Rhine. The Lower Ahr Valley is more densely planted, with more basalt-derived clay and sand atop dark slate. It is also warmer, with harvests occurring on average 10 days earlier than in the Upper Ahr Valley. Because of this, Lower Ahr wines exhibit a more opulent character. Some of the most ancient vineyards, however, are further west. In the nearly pure slate soils of the Upper Ahr Valley, phylloxera is nonexistent, and there are a few century-old vineyards, still trained in the single-post system. The region’s full turn toward red wine production began in earnest in the 1980s, with Meyer-Näkel in the village of Dernau leading the charge. In that era, many Ahr wines, as Pigott rightly criticized, were essentially rosés—and not infrequently off-dry, either. Blauer Portugieser was a popular grape alongside Pinot Noir. Following a generational change, Meyer-Näkel pivoted its gaze toward Burgundy and began emphasizing dryness, abandoning thermovinification, employing longer macerations, and aging in French oak barrels. Others took notice, and a revolution in style began. Guyot training replaced the traditional single-post system in serious vineyards, providing more sun exposure in the Ahr’s northerly climate. Dijon clones of Pinot Noir and new clones from Geisenheim, selected for quality, began to appear alongside the Swiss Mariafeld clones and German clones more often selected for high yields and cold hardiness. Today, Ahr Spätburgunder is among Germany’s finest, even as its output is still miniscule in comparison to more massive regions like Baden and Pfalz. How has a region north of the 50th parallel managed such success when areas to its south, like the Mosel, have trouble reliably ripening red grapes? Aided by its east-west orientation, the Ahr Valley benefits from the moderating influence of the Gulf Stream, and the growing season here is longer than in nearby regions like Mittelrhein or the Mosel. The whole region is a canyon, protected from wind and rain amidst the low Eifel Mountains. In this rain shadow, sunlight hours are correspondingly higher, and the region experiences fewer bouts of botrytis than the Mosel. But it is still a cool climate winegrowing region, with an average annual temperature of only 9.8° C (49.5° F). The dark slate soils of Ahr vineyards store heat for chilly evenings, and south-facing aspects are essential. All of the Ahr’s best vineyards and Grosse Lage sites are on steep slopes above the river’s northern banks. Despite the threat of erosion, almost all Ahr vineyard rows run down the slopes (north-south) in order to maximize sun exposure. Whole-cluster fermentations are essentially unknown since stems remain green, and chaptalization is common. “We can’t be Öchsle fetishists,” retorts Jean Stodden. “We need ripeness, not sugar. We are so far north; you can always add sugar.” Frühburgunder, known in France as Pinot Noir Precocé, has replaced Portugieser as the second most planted red variety in the Ahr. (It is genetically the same variety, but producers in the Ahr traditionally treat it as distinct.) Frühburgunder is a troublesome grape to get right. It is ready for harvest about two weeks before Spätburgunder—a period in which it is the only ripe fruit or berry in the region, making it a prime target for wasps and birds (and tourists...) and necessitating netting. It’s also a ready victim of millerandage . Frühburgunder develops thicker skins than Spätburgunder, with more color and less acidity in the glass. Fruit flavors become concentrated and liqueur-like, and the wine often has more richness and immediate approachability than Ahr Spätburgunder. Mittelrhein With less than 500 hectares of vines, Mittelrhein is one of Germany’s smallest Anbaugebiete . Adjacent to the Rheingau, the Mittelrhein winegrowing region follows the course of the Rhine River 120 kilometers northward from Bacharach to Bonn. The city of Koblenz, where the Mosel and Rhine rivers meet, is located in Mittelrhein, as is the confluence of the Ahr and Rhine. As the Rhine River resumes its northward course after a shift west in the Rheingau, it enters a narrow, spectacular gorge. Majestic medieval castles stud its banks and slopes. This is the “Middle Rhine,” a UNESCO World Heritage Site and an important historical crossroads of culture and trade. The Mittelrhein marked a past divide between areas of French influence and Prussian control, as the narrow, restrictive gorge created an ideal boundary. Its many ruined castles suggest the ease with which local rulers could extract tolls from commercial vessels on this stretch of the river. Two Bereiche , Loreley and Siebengebirge, neatly divide the slim Mittelrhein region into southern and northern sectors. The vast majority of the Mittelrhein’s vineyards and all of its Grosse Lage sites are located within the southern Bereich of Loreley, which stretches from Bacharach past Koblenz to the village of Unkel. In an old dialect, Loreley roughly translates to “murmuring rock,” referring to a massive slate promontory jutting sharply upward from the Rhine’s right bank, spawning old legends of siren songs plaguing boatmen below. Siebengebirge, the northernmost winegrowing area in western Germany, is a cluster of uplifted hills of volcanic origin southeast of Bonn. (There are 40, not sieben .) It is a much less significant winegrowing district, and fewer than two dozen hectares of vines remain under cultivation. In Loreley and throughout Mittelrhein, Riesling is the most planted variety—the grape accounts for almost 70% of the total acreage. With the steep slopes of the Rhine gorge and its Devonian slate soils, conditions are similar to those in the Mosel, but the south-facing orientations essential to producing great Riesling are much rarer in the Mittelrhein. A couple of superior, south-facing sites (Bopparder Hamm, Oberweseler Ölsberg) are perched along sharp bends in the Rhine, but most of the Mittelrhein’s best vineyards are secluded in side valleys in Bacharach and Oberwesel. Stylistically, Riesling producers in Mittelrhein have more interest in trocken and halbtrocken styles of wine than those in the Mosel—for the 2014 vintage, 65% of Mittelrhein’s production was recorded as dry or off-dry, while the majority of Mosel wines were still clocking in at lieblich (medium sweet) or süss. Hessische-Bergstrasse Hessische-Bergstrasse is one of the smallest Anbaugebiete in Germany, both in physical sizes and hectares planted to the vine. It’s 50 kilometers due south of the city of Frankfurt and aligned in latitude with the southern Rheinhessen, 30 kilometers to its west. Historically, the Bergstrasse’s vineyards constituted a sort of satellite region for the Rheingau, as they were once among the thousands of hectares tended by the Cistercian monks of Kloster Eberbach. Today, less than 500 hectares remain along the “Hessen Mountain Road,” gently sloping downward from the Odenwald hills into the valley of the Rhine River. Most are clustered around the village of Heppenheim in the Starkenburg Bereich , but there is a small “island” of vineyards further north, nearer to the Main River and separated from the remainder, which comprises the Umstadt Bereich . Prior to 1971, the Bergstrasse region included an additional swath of land past its current southern border, but the new wine law cleaved it in two. The new Anbaugebiet remained within the borders of the federal state of Hessen, while vineyards to the south were annexed by Baden to become Bereich Badische-Bergstrasse. The region is colloquially known as the “spring garden,” signaling a transition in phase from the cooler areas to its immediate north to the warmer growing region of Baden directly south of it. Riesling is still the region’s most planted grape variety, accounting for 45% of the total acreage, but the wines rarely achieve the same tense acidity as those produced in the Rheingau. Not that many have the opportunity to find out—Hessische-Bergstrasse wines are usually consumed locally and infrequently exported. Over half of the region’s acreage is under the control of the Bergstrasse Winzer eG cooperative, located in the village of Heppenheim. One reminder of the region’s past link to the Rheingau remains: the largest vineyard holding (35 planted hectares) belongs to Kloster Eberbach and the state winery, Hessische Staatsweingüter. Sachsen and Saale-Unstrut Following Germany’s 1990 reunification, the country’s total number of Anbaugebiete increased from 11 to 13 with the addition of two areas previously under East German rule, Saale-Unstrut and Sachsen (Saxony). At 51° N latitude, these are Germany’s northernmost winegrowing regions, far to the east of the country’s more renowned vineyards. Sachsen, which follows the course of the Elbe River through Dresden to Meissen, is near the Czech border; the namesake river valleys of Saale and Unstrut are about 150 kilometers west of Sachsen, near Leipzig. Both areas have supported viticulture for many centuries—Sachsen’s first documented vineyard appeared at a local bishop’s behest in 1161, and Benedictine monks were tending vines in Saale-Unstrut by the late 900s—but phylloxera and two world wars took a toll, reducing the thousands of hectares and proud histories in each region to a smattering of vines by the 1950s. The few remaining estates in Sachsen and Saale-Unstrut functioned as state-run cooperative wineries during the communist era; quality winemaking was not in the program. Today, however, each region is experiencing a minor renaissance. With almost 800 hectares in the ground in 2016, Saale-Unstrut is Germany’s fastest-growing region, and Sachsen, led by Schloss Proschwitz—the region’s largest estate and the first VDP member in Saxony—is making good wines, even if most of them never make it further afield than a Dresden tavern. White grapes radically outnumber reds in both Sachsen and Saale-Unstrut. As a reminder of their cool continental climates, as well as both regions’ recent entries into the quality wine business, Müller-Thurgau remains the most planted variety in each region. (Riesling will likely soon overtake it in Sachsen.) Average must weights are lower here than in southwestern Germany. One local specialty claimed by Sachsen is Goldriesling, a grape crossing developed in 1893 at the Oberlin Institute in Alsace. The grape is not commercially farmed in Alsace and claims only about a dozen hectares in Sachsen. Several estates make dry to off-dry, lively, aromatic wines with the rare variety. BACK TO TOP GuildSomm would like to thank Romana Echensperger, MW, for her help in reviewing this guide.Previewhttps://www.guildsomm.com/research/expert_guides/w/expert-guides/2438/greeceThu, 29 Oct 2026 13:34:00 GMT8277e151-5ba9-4335-93f0-6f497ffb8dc4:109b5d6a-5d41-4d9f-ae01-effb0cf099e9Jonathan EichholzIf Greek wine has already seen a new dawn, one thing is for sure: it is just the beginning. New wineries, new faces, and new ideas crop up at every harvest and at an ever-accelerating pace, making Greece one of the most vibrant wine regions in the world. -Konstantinos Lazarakis, MW, "The Wines of Greece" Contents History of Greece Greek Wine in Context The Land Climate Greek Wine Law The Grapes of Greece Regions of Greece Bibliography History of Greece The Greeks played a fundamental role in the history of wine. They not only spread vines and knowledge of winemaking to many nations but also were extremely enthusiastic consumers, incorporating wine into a range of cultural activities. This created lasting associations that continue to inform wine’s elevated reputation and stature. Wine was of religious importance (Dionysus, god of wine and therefore hedonism, which evolved to become Rome’s Bacchus) and military consequence (it was rationed to soldiers), was celebrated for its medicinal properties, was the liquid fuel of philosophers, and was drunk both by leaders and the lower classes. It was also a yardstick against which the Greeks measured their enemies. Beer-drinking societies such as the Gauls were looked down upon, and those that consumed undiluted wine, such as Thracians, were equally scorned. In short, the Greeks viewed not just the consumption of wine, but the proper consumption of wine, as essential to keeping civilization civilized. Toward this end, the Greek oenohoos could even be considered the forerunner to the sommelier. These proto-sommeliers were responsible for blending wine and water during the era’s many symposia, in an effort to stoke spirited discourse while avoiding crass drunkenness—a fine balance indeed. Depiction of an oenohoos What is defined today as “Greek wine” is wine made within Greece’s current political boundaries. This sounds straightforward, but those boundaries have changed many times over the past several millennia. For example, Thrace, which at one point included over 200 tribes from Eastern Europe and Asia Minor that were sworn enemies of Athens, is now a proud part of the Greek state. The following is a simplification but attempts to outline the sequence of governing powers of Greece. The Minoan civilization, which was largely confined to Crete and Santorini, was the dominant force in Greece from roughly 3000 BCE until (most likely) the eruption of Santorini in the 17th century BCE. The Mycenaean civilization came next. They were based in the Peloponnese and ruled from the 17th century to approximately 1100 BCE. This was followed by the Homeric Period, in which many different cultures, such as the Dorians in the north and the Ionians in the west, came together (not always peacefully) to form a rough version of what Greece looks like today. During the eighth century BCE, important city-states such as Sparta and Athens arose and came to dominate Greek culture. Though Athens and Sparta were in various forms of conflict for centuries, this was a period of great cultural accomplishment in Greece and is often referred to as the Classic or Golden Age. During the fourth century BCE, power shifted to Macedonia in the north, where first Philip and then his son Alexander the Great ruled. The death of Alexander the Great in 323 BCE marks the end of the Classical period and the beginning of the Hellenic Age, which lasted until the Roman occupation in 146 BCE. Nearly 400 years later, in 330 CE, the Christian Byzantines took over; they were displaced by the Muslim Ottomans in 1453. Meanwhile, between the 12th and 17th centuries, the Venetians controlled much of the Ionian and Aegean Islands (including Crete), as well as part of the Peloponnese, before being overwhelmed by the Turks. Greece won its independence in 1832 and joined the European Union in 1981. Ancient History The history of Greek wine begins on the island of Crete, where the Minoan civilization likely received instruction from the Near East via Egypt around the year 2500 BCE. From here, viticulture spread to Santorini (called Thera at the time), and later to the rest of the Aegean and the mainland. The Greeks then circulated the vine throughout the Mediterranean, the Black Sea, and up the Danube almost as far as Austria. They also traded the finished product widely. But the wines consumed during this era were far different than those enjoyed today. Wine was almost never drunk straight; it was typically cut with water (sometimes sea water) before serving, and would have been mixed with a range of ingredients, from herbs to spices to honey. Over time, different regions became known for their associated alterations—an early example of “sense of place.” Wine was transported in large amphorae and served out of smaller clay vessels. To prevent oxidation, such containers were often sealed with pine resin. This informed the taste of the wine and is the origin of today’s Retsina. Ancient amphorae, recovered from the sea The Greek wine industry peaked between the sixth and fourth centuries BCE and, though it declined in importance, remained dominant even after the Roman conquest of 146 BCE. A major turning point was the founding of the Christian Byzantine Empire (330 CE), which saw the center of power shift from Rome to what is now Istanbul. The Byzantine era lasted over 1,000 years, during which time Greek wine underwent significant changes. Wooden barrels were introduced during the seventh century, replacing amphorae. Sweet wines made from dried grapes grew in popularity until they became the most famous wines of Greece. Wine stopped being diluted with water, and alterations were reduced, though use of pine resin—now as a flavoring agent rather than a sealant—persisted. During the 11th century, the Greek wine industry was dealt a blow when the Venetians were granted favorable trading status, allowing them to sell imported wine at incredibly low prices. Greek producers were unable to match this, and several centuries of unchecked competition took its toll. By the time the Ottoman Turks conquered the area in 1453, Greece’s wine industry was a shadow of its former self. During the nearly 400 years of Turkish occupation, the Greek wine industry withered, especially on the mainland (the Ionian Islands never really came under Turkish rule, and many parts of the Aegean Islands experienced only a truncated occupation). Though the new rulers were Muslim, winemaking was never forbidden, but punitive taxes discouraged production, and a significant number of vineyards were simply abandoned. To compound the damage, following the Greek War of Independence (1821 – 1832), the retreating armies burned many fields and vineyards on their way back to Turkey. Greece had won its freedom but had little left with which to toast. Independence, Phylloxera, and Poverty The period following independence was a fragile time for the Greek economy. Wine production was slow to recover from the previous era’s ravages, but viticulture soon found a way to thrive: through the cultivation of raisins. Now able to trade freely with Europe, Greece had been selling a significant quantity of raisins to the British since gaining its independence, but France’s phylloxera crisis of the 1870s and 1880s opened a new market that was both vast and insatiable. There, producers without vines were steeping raisins in water and fermenting the broth into a kind of wine. To satisfy this sudden demand, Greek landowners expanded their vineyards substantially, often at the expense of other crops. During the 1880s, raisin cultivation leapt from 24,000 to 114,000 hectares, with much of that growth concentrated in the Peloponnese. This made raisins the number one crop in Greece, as well as the primary national export. To say that the country’s fortunes were tied to a successful raisin trade would be an understatement. Unfortunately for the Greeks, France’s vineyards began to recover in the 1890s. In a bid to protect their own producers, the French quickly moved to reduce imports and restrict the production of “fake wines,” such as those made from raisins. As a result, Greek exports to France plummeted, and the country was faced with a grape glut that saw prices slashed by as much as 85%. This not only caused social unrest but was financially devastating to the country, and directly contributed to Greece’s declaration of bankruptcy in 1893. But Greece’s problems were far from over. Phylloxera arrived in 1898 and quickly tore its way through Macedonia and the north. Its southward spread was more languid (Crete, for example, didn’t report any phylloxera until the 1970s), but even still, recovery was slow. This is partly because of Greece’s depressed economy (grafted vines needed to be individually purchased—a major expense), but also because of a series of armed conflicts. The first round of one-two punches came when the Balkan Wars of 1912 and 1913 bled into World War I, and the second when World War II was immediately followed by the Greek Civil War. During this long span of time, viticulture suffered and wines were notoriously rustic. As quantity was valued over quality, overproduction was a regular occurrence, which was destabilizing to the market. In response, the government established several winemaking cooperatives to absorb the excess crop. Many, such as the one on Samos (Greece’s first, founded in 1934), remain an important part of the Greek wine industry today. The Modern Era "My father had the hard job, educating foreign markets on indigenous Greek varieties. By the time I started working the markets, all the American sommeliers already knew how to pronounce Assyrtiko and Moschofilero. My job became easy. I could focus on other things—our story, our terroir." – Argyris Gerovassiliou Retsina Retsina can trace its origins back to antiquity and is characterized by its distinctive pine flavor. It has long been thought that the style originated when pine resin was used to seal clay wine vessels, which made a mark on the taste of the wine, though many now argue that the resin was always added expressly for its flavor. This was not unusual, as ancient Greek wine was often mixed with a variety of substances, including honey, seawater, and herbs. Long after other wine alterations faded from practice, pine resin remained in vogue, partly due to its antiseptic properties. During the rise of tourism that started in the 1950s, Retsina production spiked, as the resin was useful in masking the rustic nature of the era’s wines. Of course, as clay vessels were no longer in use, the resin had to be manually added to the wine. Today, the sap must be added during the first half of fermentation, with a kind of tea bag. Legally, the resin, which is extracted from Aleppo pine trees ( Pinus halepensis ), can account for 0.15 to 1.0% of the wine’s final volume. Retsina is one of only two traditional PGIs (the other is Verdea), and while the wine can be made anywhere, production tends to be concentrated in Central Greece. Within that region are 15 different appellations that can be listed on the label. They are Gialtra, Evia, Karystos, Viotia, Thebes, Halkida, Megara, Attica, Pallini, Pikermi, Spata, Mesogia, Markopoulos, Peania, and Koropi. To be labeled Retsina, the wine must be produced exclusively from the Savatiano and Roditis varieties. As Roditis is pink-skinned, it can be used to create a rosé of Retsina called Kokkineli. Though Retsina has been long-reviled by many, a handful of top producers are crafting elegant, understated versions that are slowly winning sommeliers over. These wines tend to employ the legal minimum of resin and experience only brief infusions. Even sparkling and pét-nat Retsina are being made, typically as a way for producers to attract young drinkers to the ancient beverage. Greece’s economy began to recover after World War II, largely through a swell in tourism. Visitors were thirsty, but Greek wine was rough, so the addition of pine resin to mask its worst offenses became commonplace. In this way, the ancient product of Retsina grew to be known as the de facto beverage of Greece. While 2016 statistics reflect Retsina at 7 to 7.5% of the national production, this unconventional and often-polarizing wine continues to inform the country’s vinous reputation. Historically, most of Greece’s wine was produced and distributed in bulk, but bottled wine became more commonplace starting in the 1950s and 1960s. In 1969 and 1970, Greece enacted its first modern wine laws using the French AOC system as a model, and by 1971, many of today’s appellations were delimited. This coincided with a marked increase in quality, spearheaded by five companies: Boutari, Achaia Clauss, Kambas, Kourtakis, and Tsantali. Most of these wineries were founded in the late 19th century and were significant in size. Boutari played an especially important role, establishing satellite wineries in many of Greece’s major appellations and sending its winemakers and vineyard managers to study in France far before that was commonplace. A sixth winery of historical importance, Domaine Porto Carras, launched in 1970 and tapped famed Bordeaux enologist Émile Peynaud as its consultant. However slowly, Greece was catching up to the rest of the world. The 1980s was a critical decade for Greek wine. Greece joined the EU in 1981, easing the export process and opening new markets; the country’s first enology school opened in Athens; boutique producers grew in importance; and an increasing number of winemakers sought international experience. This last element had both positive and negative ramifications for the Greek wine industry. While it certainly led to an improvement, or at least a modernization, of winemaking techniques, it also sped up the planting of so-called international varieties such as Cabernet Sauvignon and Chardonnay that had begun in previous decades. Greece had already lost many indigenous vine types during the phylloxera epidemic, and this movement threatened to displace even more. These trends continued during the 1990s, altering the timbre of many wines. Overall, Greek wines were cleaner and more fault-free than ever, but many suffered from an abundance of extraction and new oak. Thankfully, the first two decades of the 2000s have seen a pulling back from such tendencies. More producers are embracing their indigenous stock as a strength rather than a marketing liability, and international varieties, though still present, are on the decline. Some wines continue to be made in a ripe and bombastic style, but that, too, seems to be waning. Indeed, while Greece still offers an astounding range of wines, the dominant national style seems to be bright, fresh whites that pair perfectly with the coastal cuisine and structured, savory reds that are ideal companions to the culinary traditions of inland Greece and the mountainous north. Greece’s economy continues to be a point of concern, however. The international depression that followed the economic fallout of 2008 was particularly hard on Greece, and the nation remains in crisis. This has destabilized Greece’s relationship to the rest of Europe, and a strong separatist contingency is at work inside the country. While all this is threatening to the wine industry, there is some good news. For one, wine exports are on the rise. As of 2015/2016, Greece exported 12% of its wine production, and while most of that still goes to Europe, the US and Canada represent the second and fifth biggest markets, and both are growing. Part of the success of the export markets is that today’s producers can capitalize on the pioneering efforts of the previous generations; they are showing their wine to buyers that are already (market-depending) conversant in the major Greek varieties. Hopefully, this growth will continue and help keep quality producers in business while the nation of Greece weathers this most recent in a long string of hardships. BACK TO TOP Greek Wine in Context In 2015/2016, Greece boasted around 61,500 hectares of vines. Of these, 90% are divided among the over 300 indigenous varieties of Greece. Statistically, the most important are Savatiano (16.52%), Roditis (14.34%), Agiorgitiko (5.28%), Liatiko (3.85%), Xinomavro (3.44%), Muscat of Hamburg (3.13%), and Assyrtiko (3.12%). The dominance of Savatiano and Roditis is in part due to their use as the base for Retsina. Large landholdings are rare—the average vineyard is around a half a hectare, and the number of individual growers in Greece is estimated at around 160,000. As most of these vineyards are planted along some sort of slope, almost all work, including harvest, is conducted by hand. From these vines, 1,100 wineries produce 2.5 million hectoliters (around 28 million cases) of wine. Though this makes Greece the 16th or 17th largest producer in the world (the precise ranking fluctuates by vintage), it only accounts for 1% of the world’s wine. BACK TO TOP The Land Asked to imagine Greece, most people would likely conjure an image of a sandy beach caressed by sapphire waves. But while Greece certainly does boast a staggering amount of coastline, its many mountains also play a significant role regarding the character of its wines. Greece occupies the southernmost end of the Balkan peninsula, tucked between the 34th and 42nd parallels. In the north, it is bordered by Albania, Bulgaria, Turkey, and North Macedonia. A full 70% percent of Greece is covered by mountains, making it Europe’s third most mountainous country after Switzerland and Austria. ( See elevation by PDO in the Compendium .) The main range, the Pindos, which forms the spine of Greece, is the southernmost extension of the central Alps. This range extends down from the north, through the Peloponnese, and under the sea, where it occasionally surfaces as islands. Mount Olympus, which crests the clouds at an elevation of nearly 3,000 meters (9,850 feet), is Greece’s tallest peak and the historic home of its gods. It is located on the eastern edge of the country, close to the Aegean Sea. As Greece is so mountainous, there is little flat terrain. The few plains that exist are concentrated in the regions of Thessaly, Sterea Ellada, Macedonia, and Thrace. In the interior, Greece sports very few lakes and almost no major rivers. Water abounds along the exterior, however, as Greece is surrounded by seas on three sides: the Aegean to the east, the Ionian to the west, and the Libyan to the south of Crete. Within these seas are several thousand islands, though just slightly over 100 of them are inhabited. These islands are divided into two main camps: the Ionian, of which Cephalonia is the most important, and the Aegean. The Aegean Islands are further subdivided into the Cyclades (which contains Santorini), the Dodecanese, and the North Aegean Islands. Crete also occupies the Aegean but tends to be considered on its own terms because of its size and history of independence. Evia is another large Aegean island, though it gets lumped in with Central Greece due to the similarity of its viticulture and its proximity to Athens. The mainland of Greece is carved into several regions, which are similar to states. Macedonia and Thrace occupy the north, with Epirus and Thessaly forming the band just south of them. The area beneath them is straddled by the broad region of Central Greece, also known as Sterea Ellada, which contains the island of Evia and is appended by Attica, the small but extensively planted area surrounding Athens ( Attica is Greek for “Athens”). The most southerly section of continental Greece is the Peloponnese, a large peninsula that is separated from the mainland by the narrow Corinthian Gulf. Greece is one of the few places in the world where oceanic crust not only protrudes from the sea but forms mountains. Because of this, the wine regions feature a considerable amount of limestone and are generally low in fertility. That said, there are regional variations. Santorini is almost entirely volcanic in composition, the plains (especially in Sterea Ellada) feature a good amount of clay, alluvial formations are common along the coast, and igneous material is concentrated in the northern regions. BACK TO TOP Climate Greece’s climate is predominately Mediterranean, with abundant sunshine; hot, dry, extended summers; mild winters; and truncated springs. There are some exceptions to this, especially in the interior. Epirus, the central part of the Peloponnese, western Thessaly, and western Macedonia feature continental climates with more defined seasons and cooler, wetter winters. Attica is the hottest and driest part of Greece, while Epirus and Amynteo are tied for coolest. Speaking broadly, in the winter, inland areas tend to range from 32 to 41 degrees Fahrenheit while coastal areas hover between 41 to 50 degrees Fahrenheit. In the summers, the temperatures are more even across the county, with the national average around 84 to 95 degrees Fahrenheit. In general, rains are most abundant in the north and the west of the country, while the eastern edge of the mainland and the Aegean Islands are dry. When it comes, precipitation tends to fall between October and March; only Thrace and Macedonia regularly experience summer or harvest rains. Irrigation is technically forbidden across Greece (as in the rest of the EU), but the practice is widespread. This is largely because the government grants exceptions for newly planted vines and times of extreme drought or heat. As Tsantali Viticultural Director George Salpiggidis puts it, “The government has given growers a window regarding irrigation, but we use it as a door.” Due to the at-times extreme heat, elevation plays an important role in Greek viticulture, with many of the finest wines coming from the highest slopes. Cool winds from the north and proximity to the seas also serve to mitigate the heat. A wind known as the Meltemi regularly sweeps the Aegean. The name loosely translates to “a year of bad weather” and occurs when a high-pressure system falls over the Balkans and a low-pressure system sits over Turkey. It blows very dry air from the north, typically between mid-May and late September, which has an especially profound effect on Santorini. Similarly, Crete must contend with hot winds coming off Africa in the south. The mountain spine that runs west to east across the island acts as a natural barricade, and many of the island’s vines are planted to its north. BACK TO TOP Greek Wine Law Dessert Wines Sweet wines are an important part of the Greek wine landscape. As the national climate is dry, botrytis is not really a factor. Because of this, most Greek dessert wines are produced using air- or sun-dried grapes or through fortification, sometimes both. Vin naturellement doux wines are created solely from dried grapes. Vin doux wines are created when unfermented must is shocked with spirits; this is sometimes referred to as vin de liqueur . Vin doux naturel wines are produced when spirits are added to a partly fermented wine, and fortification is generally executed using Tsipouro, Greek grappa. This is considered the superior approach to fortification, and all grand cru Greek wines must be made using this method. Also, in order to be labeled grand cru, a Greek dessert wine must hail from a select group of vineyards, which are generally at a high elevation and are subject to stricter maximum yields. Though Greece abounds in dessert wine, grand cru designation is only applicable to certain Muscats and sweet Liatiko from Crete's Daphnes PDO. Greece boasts some of the oldest wine laws on earth, with an ancient delineation within Thrace considered one of the first. Several millennia later, in the late 1960s and early 1970s, Greece made its modern attempt at defining appellations. Those laws were tweaked again in the 1980s, following Greece’s induction into the EU. Originally, Greece’s top designations of origin were OPAP (Onomasia Proelefsos Anoteras Piotitos, or Appellations of Superior Quality) and OPE (Onomasia Proelefsos Elenghomeni, or Controlled Appellations of Origin, specific to Greece’s traditional sweet wines), with TO (Topikos Oinos) the rough equivalent of France’s Vin de Pays. The system was overhauled in 2009, resulting in the PDO/PGI system seen today, with both OPAP and OPE being absorbed into the PDO stratum. (They technically still exist and might be seen on labels, but this is rare.) Greece’s PDOs (Protected Designations of Origin) number 33 and are largely protective in measure; all but two (the Slopes of Meliton and Messenikola) are dedicated entirely to indigenous varieties. To be bottled as a PDO, 100% of the fruit must be both grown and vinified within the appellation. As of 2015/2016, PDO wines (48.69% white) represent only 19.62% of Greece’s total production. PDO wines may be labeled with aging designations of reserve or grande reserve , defined below. Next in the hierarchy are the 120 PGIs (Protected Geographic Indication), which come in three levels: regional, district, and area, where an Area PGI can be as small as a single vineyard. To be bottled as a PGI, a minimum of 85% of grapes should come from the appellation, though all grapes must be vinified within the PGI’s boundary. Statistics from 2015/2016 reflect that PGIs (61.22% white) account for 62.47% of Greece’s production. The PGI stratum also includes two traditional wines: Verdea, an oxidized white wine from the Ionian island Zakynthos, and Retsina, which can only be produced in 15 locations within Greece. Traditional PGI wines marry process and place, and, as the name implies, serve to preserve ancient methods of wine production. Retsina cannot be labeled with a vintage. PGI wines and Varietal wines (defined below) may be labeled with the aging designation of cava (also defined below). It is important to note that after the EU parallel system of PDO and PGI was incorporated into Greek wine law, the various PGI were broadened in size and grape variety allowances to ensure that all wineries throughout Greece could place an appellation more specific than their Regional PGI on the label. Varietal and Table wines occupy the next rung down the latter. Table wines cannot display vintage, varietal composition, or region of origin on the label. The Varietal category of wine, debuted in 2011, allows the vintage and variety to be displayed on the label, but not the origin of the fruit. As far as labeling laws go, a minimum of 85% of a wine must come from the stated vintage. Similarly, if a single variety is listed on the label, 85% of the fruit must come from that variety. If more than one variety is listed, 100% of the wine must be composed of those varieties. Glossary of Terms Asproudi (plural: Asproudes): A generic term for unknown white grapes ( aspro means “white”). Cava: For PGI and Varietal wines only. Refers to a minimum of oak aging. For white and rosé wines, this is one year of aging with at least six months in barrel. For reds, three years of aging with at least one year in barrel. Grand cru: Applies to certain sweet wines, made via the vin doux naturel process, that are sourced from select vineyards of a given region, typically from higher elevation sites. Grand/Grande reserve: For PDO wines only. Refers to a minimum of oak aging. For white wines, this is two years of aging with at least one year in barrel and six months in bottle. For reds, four years of aging with at least 18 months in barrel and 18 months in bottle. White grande reserve wines cannot be aged in barrels larger than 600 liters. Kouloura/stefani: A traditional method of vine training specific to Santorini, wherein vines are trained along the ground in a basket shape. This protects the grapes from the harsh, hot winds. Ktima: Estate. Mavroudi: An indigenous variety but also a generic term for unknown red grapes ( mavro means “black”). Paleomenos se vareli: For PDO, PGI, and Varietal wines that are labeled with cava, reserve, or grande reserve. Indicates extended oak aging beyond the required minimums. Reserve: For PDO wines only. Refers to a minimum of oak aging. For white wines, this is one year of aging with at least 6 months in barrel and 3 months in bottle. For red wines, two years of aging required with a minimum of 12 months in barrel and 6 months in bottle. BACK TO TOP The Grapes of Greece Greece claims to possess over 300 indigenous varieties, but the precise number is impossible to ascertain without a massive, nationwide genetic census. No matter the exact count, Greece as a country is very much committed to its native stock. As of 2015/2016, international varieties represent only 10% of Greece’s vines, and that number is shrinking. And Greece’s grapes are just as committed to their country! Very few have crossed national borders, with less than 30 planted outside of Greece. In general, two-thirds of Greece’s vineyards are planted to white grapes, and one-third to red. It is important to note that there are no official English spellings of Greek varieties. Also, as Greek viticulture predates the field of ampelography by several thousand years, many Greek varieties go by multiple names, depending on where they are grown. Red Grapes Agiorgitiko: Agiorgitiko, which translates to “St. George’s grape,” is probably Greece’s best-known red variety, due in large part to the charming nature of its wines. It tends toward high yields, which can be managed through close planting, and sets small clusters of thick-skinned berries that are prone to mildew and disease. It has long been described as late-ripening, but that reputation was due in part to the rampant presence of virus. Now that virus-free clones are available, fruit is ready a bit earlier in the year. The grape is planted in various pockets of Greece, primarily Attica and the central Peloponnese, but it is most famous as the solely permitted variety in the PDO of Nemea. There, it produces a range of wines: rosés, light reds made via carbonic maceration, ageworthy reds, and dessert wines made from dried fruit or the addition of spirits. Across the spectrum, Agiorgitiko’s wines tend to be deeply colored, full of soft, plummy fruit, and tinged with spices and cocoa. Both the acidity and tannins are often high (though exaggerated ripeness can mitigate that), although many winemakers seek to produce wines with lower tannins through carbonic maceration or late harvesting. Some more modern producers are experimenting with the creation of “Super Nemeas” by blending Agiorgitiko with Cabernet Sauvignon. Notable PDOs: Nemea Liatiko: Liatiko is an indigenous variety of Crete, where it is used to create both still and sweet wines. It is known to ripen early, often before August; its name is thought to derive from the word for July. As a variety, it is low in both tannin and color but has medium acidity and pronounced, often floral, aromatics. Historically, it is thought to have been a component of the famous, ancient Malvasia wine. Today, it is vinified on its own as a red wine in Daphnes, and blended with the more deeply hued Mandilaria in Sitia. For the dessert PDOs of Malvasia Sitia and Malvasia Candia, its dried grapes are vinified like a white wine and are merely one permitted element of a complex blend. On its own, the wine can be a bit simple, but when blended or dried for dessert wine, the enticing aromatics and body make for a compelling wine. Notable PDOs: Daphnes, Sitia Limnio (Lemnio): Limnio takes its name from the island of Limnos, where it likely finds its origin. It is a highly disease- and drought-resistant, late-ripening variety that produces tight bunches that mature unevenly. It tends to produce light-to-medium colored wines that can be austere, with higher tannin and alcohol, moderate acid, and an herbal nose. In the Slopes of Meliton PDO for red wine, it accounts for 70% of the blend, with the remainder composed of Cabernet Sauvignon and/or Cabernet Franc. In the PDO Limnos, it is vinified on its own. Beyond PDOs, it is also planted in Macedonia, Thrace, and in the famous Mount Athos Vineyard. Notable PDOs: Limnos, Slopes of Meliton Mandilaria: One of the important red varieties of Greece’s islands, Mandilaria is known above all for the dark hue of its wines. Beyond that, its wines tend to be low in alcohol and aromatics, but high in both tannin and acid. One account of this odd combination of attributes, it is often blended. In Crete, it is typically combined with Kotsifali or Liatiko; on Paros, it is paired with Monemvasia (a white grape, though the finished wine is red); and on Santorini, where it is the most widely planted red grape, it is blended with Mavrotragano. The only PDO that features uncut Mandilaria is Rhodes, where the extended growing season allows the wine to gain more body than is typical. There, it is produced as dry red, rosé, and sparkling wine. Notable PDOs: Archanes, Candia, Paros, Peza, Rhodes, Sitia Mavrodaphne: Mavrodaphne is both a grape and a brand name, as it is the moniker of one of the most historic wines of Greece. It is grown primarily on the Ionian Islands and the west Peloponnese, where through extended oak aging, it is commonly made into an oxidized sweet wine comparable to a Tawny Port, though some winemakers are producing it in a more robust, Ruby Port-like style. Two PDOs are associated with this dessert wine: Mavrodaphne of Patras and Mavrodaphne of Cephalonia. In both PDOs, Mavrodaphne can be blended with Corinthiaki, a Vitis vinifera table grape commonly used to make raisins. Mavrodaphne is a vigorous variety that requires strict yields to retain quality. It sets loose clusters of thick-skinned grapes that, when vinified dry, produce a deeply colored, tannic wine with a slightly herbal nose. As sweet wines decline in fashion, Mavrodaphne is increasingly fermented to dryness, and is often blended with Refosco (as at Domaine Mercouri) or Cabernet Sauvignon, though no PDOs accommodate this style. Notable PDOs: Mavrodaphne of Cephalonia, Mavrodaphne of Patras Xinomavro: The flagship grape of northern Greece, Xinomavro is a difficult variety to grow, and when poorly made, the wine can be aggressively herbal or structured. When treated properly in the vineyard and cellar, however, the result is one of the longest lasting and most profound red wines of Greece, often compared to Pinot Noir or Nebbiolo. Both tannin and acid levels are naturally very high in Xinomavro, but the color tends to be light, and the wine is sensitive to oxidation. Even at its most concentrated, this is never a fruity wine—the dominant aromas tend to be tomato, herb, olive, and sour cherry. That said, it is versatile in the cellar and regularly fashioned into a range of wines including sparkling rosé, dry rosé, and dry red. Because of its acerbic tendencies, it is often blended. In Goumenissa, it is cut with the soft-bodied Negoska, and in Rapsani, it is combined with Krassato and Stavroto. Beyond the PDOs, Xinomavro is planted widely in both Macedonia and Thrace, where it is occasionally blended with Syrah or Merlot. Notable PDOs: Amynteo, Goumenissa, Naoussa, Rapsani White Grapes Aidani: Aidani is planted on a handful of Aegean Islands, but it is most strongly affiliated with Santorini, also its likely point of origin. It is known to be especially drought-tolerant—useful on parched Santorini. There, it is blended with Assyrtiko and Athiri to produce a dry white wine and the dessert wine Vinsanto (not to be confused with the Tuscan dessert wine, Vin Santo). In both cases, Aidani acts as the softening agent, adding weight and texture as well as pronounced, often floral aromatics. It is rarely vinified on its own, but when it is, the result is something close to Viognier—broad and waxy with diminished acidity and an expressive nose. Notable PDOs: Santorini Assyrtiko: Assyrtiko is considered by many to be the finest of Greece’s indigenous varieties. Certainly, its wines are among the most famous, especially the powerful, steely creations of Santorini. There, Assyrtiko must account for 85% of the dry wine’s composition, with the balance comprised of Aidani and Athiri. The resulting wine tends to be somewhat high in alcohol but also vibrant and fresh. The aromatics are not particularly distinctive, but the rocky, chalky undertone to the wine is compelling. As noted, Assyrtiko is blended with Athiri and Aidani to create Vinsanto, in which Assyrtiko must represent a minimum of 51%. In the vineyard, Assyrtiko is known for being drought tolerant, adaptable, and disease resistant. It sets compact clusters of large berries, and the wood of its trunks is especially hard, which helps it resist the intense winds that batter Santorini. Naturally high levels of tartaric acid keep the wines crisp despite hot conditions. In the cellar, Assyrtiko is more challenging to manage, as the wine is prone to oxidation. Beyond Santorini, Assyrtiko features in several PDOs, but only as the minor component of a larger blend. For dry whites, it is combined with Malagousia and Athiri in Rhodes (the same blend is used for sparkling), with Athiri and Roditis in the Slopes of Meliton, and with a laundry list of other varieties in Candia (Crete). It also regularly used in dessert wines, where its acidity adds definition and lift. Beyond the PDOs, Assyrtiko is planted in all corners of Greece and various spots around the globe. The wines tend to be more aromatic and less intensely structured outside of Santorini, though they still abound in personality. In Amynteo, Assyrtiko informs several sparkling wines, and throughout Macedonia and Thrace, it is occasionally blended with Sauvignon Blanc. Notable PDOs: Malvasia Paros, Santorini, Slopes of Meliton Athiri: Athiri, which is also likely native to Santorini, is the most neutral of the island’s three flagship white varieties. Its primary attributes are its drought resistance and ability to retain quality at high crop levels. Because of this, it is widely planted across Greece. On its own, its wines offer medium acid and alcohol, and floral, citric, but somewhat neutral noses. It is rarely bottled as a varietal wine but contributes to the blends of a wide range of dry, sparkling, and dessert wines. Notable PDOs: Rhodes, Santorini, Slopes of Meliton Debina: Debina is an important variety in Epirus, where it excels in sparkling and still forms in the high-elevation PDO of Zitsa. It sets big, compact bunches and is sensitive to drought; happily for Debina, Epirus receives relatively high rainfall. The wines tend to be elegant and refreshing, if a bit simple, with semi-aromatic noses of green apple and lemon. Alcohol levels are generally low and acidity is high, hence its predilection for sparkling. Notable PDOs: Zitsa Malagousia: Malagousia is now fairly well known, but not too long ago, it flirted with extinction. While working at Domaine Porto Carras in the 1980s and 90s, winemaker Evangelos Gerovassiliou got ahold of cuttings from an experimental vineyard. He saw promise in the lost variety and began to cultivate it. When he started his own brand in Epanomi (a northern coastal town near Thessaloniki), he took some Malagousia with him, and it is now one of his most famous wines. Since then, the variety has spread across Greece and does especially well in the Peloponnese, Thessaly, and Macedonia. As its success is a recent phenomenon, it exists largely outside of the PDOs, only accounting for part of the blend in Rhodes’ still and sparkling PDO wines. Malagousia is difficult to grow and sensitive to disease, which is likely a contributing factor to its abandonment. At its best, the wines are distinctive and aromatic. They tend to have medium-to-elevated acid with high alcohol, a creamy texture, and a spicy, floral nose reminiscent of Muscat. If overripe, the wine can become flabby and tropical. Malagousia takes well to oak aging, though such wines represent a minority of production. Notable PDOs: Rhodes Moschofilero: Moschofilero is a pink-skinned variety that is planted across the Peloponnese and the Ionian Islands but reaches its apogee in the PDO of Mantinia, where it produces both dry white and sparkling wines. As it is a naturally high-yielding vine and ripens very late in the year, achieving full maturity is an annual concern in high-elevation Mantinia. Because it is prone to mutation, several clones exist. The wines are typically elevated in acid with light-to-medium body, but the primary attribute of Moschofilero is its bouquet, which tends to be strongly floral and citric but rarely as heady as Muscat or Malagousia. Some producers will subject Moschofilero to a brief period of skin contact, which can give the wine a pale pink or greyish hue, occupying a space somewhere between white and rosé but not defined as a legal category. Notable PDOs: Mantinia Muscat Blanc: Thought to originate in Greece, Muscat is an extremely ancient type of vine; indeed, many postulate that it is the oldest vinifera still cultivated today. Due to its long lineage and mutable nature, Muscat has spun off a whole family of offspring and clones. The two most important to Greece are Muscat Blanc à Petits Grains (typically referred to inside Greece as simply Muscat Blanc or White Muscat) and its offspring, Muscat of Alexandria. Of the two, Muscat Blanc is considered the finer and boasts smaller berries and more complex aromatics. In the vineyard, Muscat Blanc has moderate-to-high yields. It is quite disease prone and can easily get overripe, so pick date is crucial. This variety’s most distinctive attribute is its perfume, which is rich in terpenes and smells of roses, orange water, and honey. In Greece, Muscat Blanc is widely planted and only appears in the PDOs for dessert wines, made through a variety of methods including late harvest, drying, and fortification. Notable PDOs: Muscat of Cephalonia, Muscat of Patras, Muscat of Rhodes, Muscat of Rio Patras, Samos Muscat of Alexandria: Muscat of Alexandria is considered second in quality to Muscat Blanc, but it still plays an important role in Greek wine. It is just as susceptible to disease as Muscat Blanc but sets a bigger crop with huge clusters of large berries. Acidity is low to medium, and sugars can get high. Its heady aroma veers toward grapey and floral, with a pronounced orange tone. While not as prevalent as Muscat Blanc, it is still widely grown across Greece, but only features in the PDOs of Lemnos, both dry and sweet. Notable PDOs: Lemnos, Muscat of Lemnos Robola: Robola is an important grape on the Ionian Islands, but it is at its best on Cephalonia, where it is vinified into a crisp, refreshing, dry wine. Though it is sensitive to both disease and drought, rainfall is sufficient in the Ionian Islands for the grape to thrive. It is also quite productive, but the extremely rocky soil of Cephalonia tames its vigor. Inside Greece, it is referred to as “Assyrtiko’s little brother,” and indeed, there are several similarities: it is naturally high in acid, with medium-to-high alcohol, a penetrating mineral tone, and a rather neutral, if lemony, nose. It also is prone to oxidation in the cellar. Contrary to popular misconception, it is not a relative of Ribolla Gialla. Notable PDOs: Robola of Cephalonia Roditis (Rhoditis): Roditis is the second most widely planted grape in Greece, largely due to its regular use as a base wine for Retsina. It is cultivated all over the mainland but is especially prevalent in Central Greece, the Peloponnese, Thessaly, Thrace, and Macedonia. It is pink-skinned and very vigorous, but produces a quite neutral wine. Its best expression comes from Patras, in the north of the Peloponnese. There, it is vinified into a dry to medium-sweet white wine that tends to be medium-to-high in acidity, relatively high in alcohol, broad, creamy, and redolent of melon. In the Slopes of Meliton PDO, it is blended with Assyrtiko and Athiri, and in Anchialos, it is blended with Savatiano, though the wines barely register on the market. Notable PDOs: Anchialos, Patras, Slopes of Meliton Savatiano: Savatiano is the mostly widely planted variety in Greece, due to its long history as the base wine of Retsina. It can be found in most corners of the country but is especially ubiquitous in Attica and Central Greece. In the vineyards, it is of moderate vigor and is fairly disease resistant. Though its reputation has been marred by Retsina, careful site selection and reliance on old vines can lead to some compelling results. One need only refer to the ageworthy dry whites of Papagiannakos in Attica for proof of Savatiano’s potential. At their best, the wines are dense and creamy, with medium acidity and a concentrated nose of peach, banana, and white flowers. When crop levels are high or the vines are planted in less than ideal sites, the resulting wines are forgettable. Savatiano can be used up to 20% in the Roditis-based Anchialos PDO. Vidiano: Vidiano is native to Crete. While it is not quantitatively significant, it produces what are arguably the island’s finest white wines. Part of what makes this grape so fine, and so well-suited to Crete, is its ability to retain acidity in extreme heat. At its best, the wine is comparable to Marsanne, with a creamy texture (though more vibrant acidity), and a nose of apricots, lime, and flowers. In Candia, it is a minor part of a big blend that produces both dry white and sweet PDO wines. Notable PDOs: Candia, Malvasia Candia, Malvasia Sitia Vilana: Native to Crete, Vilana is the most widely planted white grape on the island. It is a high-yielding variety that is susceptible to disease and prone to oxidation in the winery. The wines, always dry, can be insipid, but when planted in poor soils at high elevation, better quality can be achieved. The wines tend to be medium in both acid and body, with moderate-to-high alcohol. The nose tends to feature ripe stone and tropical fruits, and oak aging is not uncommon. Only in the Peza PDO does it stand alone; otherwise, it is the component of a blend. Beyond the PDOs, it can be found in combination with Sauvignon Blanc, Thrapsathiri, and/or Vidiano. Notable PDOs: Peza, Sitia BACK TO TOP Regions of Greece The contemporary Greek state is largely recognized as being founded in the 1830s, but it would take almost another century for all the elements that form what is now known as Greece to come together. The Ionian Islands joined in 1864, followed by Thessaly in 1881. Between 1913 and 1914, Epirus, Macedonia, some of the Aegean Islands, and Crete were added. In 1920, Thrace merged with the rest of the country, and in 1947, the final piece fell into place: the Dodecanese Islands, which prior to that had belonged to Italy. For the purposes of this guide, we have divided Greece into the following sections: Northern Greece (Thrace, Macedonia, Thessaly, Epirus), Central Greece, the Peloponnese, the Ionian Islands, the Aegean Islands, and Crete. Northern Greece Macedonia and Thrace occupy the most northerly band of the Greek mainland. The regions of Epirus and Thessaly sit just beneath them, occupying more or less the same latitudes. Greek wine scholars are divided as to whether these last two regions should be considered a part of Northern Greece or Central Greece. For purposes of this guide, due in large part to the nature of the wines, they are included with Northern Greece. Thrace Thrace is a long, skinny region sandwiched between the Aegean Sea and Bulgaria, with which it shares some viticultural similarities. Cool winds come down from the north, though they are largely blocked by the Rodopi Mountains, and warm, wet air flows off the Aegean in the south. This creates significant humidity, making botrytis a regular concern. The soil near the coast is generally deep and sandy, further inland it becomes more clay dominant and fertile, and up in the area’s many mountains, it is more rocky and poor. The Area PGIs of Avdira and Ismaros are in the mountains, at around 350 meters (1,150 feet) in elevation. Thrace’s dominant climate is Mediterranean, but some of the more inland areas are continental. Fragmented Wineries Because Greek wine law mandates that a PDO wine needs to be vinified within the geographical limits of the appellation, many of Greece’s larger wineries are composed of a collection of smaller production facilities. Boutari, for example, counts seven wineries under its umbrella, in Naoussa, Santorini, Crete, Mantinia, Goumenissa, and Attica. Similarly, Tsantali is splintered into six sites, with wineries in Naoussa, Santorini, Rapsani, Mount Athos, Halkidiki, and Thrace. Thrace was a historically important region for viticulture, especially during the Byzantine era, but much of the area’s production disappeared following the phylloxera infestation of the late 1800s and never returned. Part of the stalled recovery can be blamed on the fact that this remote corner of Greece lacks a major economic center, and therefore a strong local market. Thrace’s fortune changed in the early 1990s when industry giant Tsantali established an outpost. Not only did Tsantali’s investment revitalize local production, but the winery also successfully lobbied for the creation of a handful of PGIs (at the time, TOs). In addition to the broad, Regional PGI of Thrace, there is now the District PGI of Evros in the eastern end of the region and two Area PGIs, Avdira in the west and Ismaros in the east. Thrace does not have any PDOs. The two most important indigenous varieties are Mavroudi, a small-berried, tannic red grape, and Limnio. Beyond that, a significant number of international varieties, allowed in the PGIs, are planted. Blends of Greek and international varieties are popular, with the combination of Sauvignon Blanc and Assyrtiko one of the more successful. PDOs: None Regional PGIs: Thrace District PGIs: Evros Area PGIs: Avdira, Ismaros Macedonia Macedonia is a large, sprawling region that occupies much of Greece’s northern border. On its coast is Thessaloniki, Greece’s second largest city and an important port. Red wine is the specialty of the region, with Xinomavro in the starring role. Moschomavro is also widely planted, but it is not considered as high in quality and is not included in any PDOs. When vinified on its own, Moschomavro tends to make light-bodied, fruity, and easy-drinking reds. Because the region is so vast, topography and climate vary significantly, resulting in a wide range of wine styles. Yet the overall quality tends to be high. Greek wine scholars posit that Macedonia’s qualitative edge is because it is home to two of Greece’s major winemaking families: the Boutaris and the Tsantalis. These juggernauts fulfilled the role that co-ops played in many other regions, claiming much of the area’s fruit. However, because they were commercial and not government operations, there was greater pressure for quality on the growers. The western rim of Macedonia bumps up against the Pindos range. Here are the region’s highest levels of rainfall, and both hail and snow are common. The district of Florina, which contains the Amynteo (Amyndeon) PDO , is one of the coldest pockets of Greece. Amynteo occupies a plateau that sits between 520 and 720 meters (1,705 – 2,630 feet) in elevation, and its vineyards are mostly flat. The plateau is ringed by mountains and features some of Greece’s only lakes. These lakes moderate the climate, which here is technically continental. Limestone and loam are prevalent, but the dominant soil type is sand. Indeed, in some places, the sand content is so high that phylloxera cannot thrive. As a result, Amynteo boasts some of Greece’s last remaining patches of own-rooted vines. The PDO of Amynteo allows for only Xinomavro, which can be made in a variety of styles, from red to rosé to sparkling rosé (made via tank or traditional method), and either dry or off-dry. This is one of the few PDOs for rosé in all of Greece, and the wines tend to be a bit more elegant than the big and fruity national style. The dry reds are also on the elegant side, as it is colder here than in Naoussa or Goumenissa, Macedonia’s other Xinomavro-based PDOs. These examples of Xinomavro are often lean and light, with more floral, lifted aromatics and occasionally a more pronounced herbal tone. Some of the most successful wines of the area are traditional method, dry sparkling wines. Sparkling wine must be rosé to be bottled as PDO, but Xinomavro blanc de noirs and sparkling Assyrtiko can be thrilling. Beyond Xinomavro, the vineyards of Amynteo also feature lesser amounts of Merlot, Syrah, Roditis, Malagousia, and Sauvignon Blanc, which are vinified into the area’s many PGI wines. Moving eastward, the next PDO is Naoussa , which reigns with the Peloponnese’s Nemea as the most famous red wine appellation in Greece. Though the vineyards sit at lower elevations than in Amynteo, between 80 and 350 meters (260 – 1,150 feet), they are more pronounced in slope. Naoussa’s vineyards form a near-contiguous east-facing band that extends along the slopes of Mount Vermion, a popular winter ski destination. The soils are heavier than in Amynteo, with more clay and less sand, as well as considerable limestone. It is slightly warmer and more humid than in Amynteo, but Naoussa’s climate is still categorized as continental. A vineyard in Naoussa Naoussa owes its early renown to Boutari, which got its start here in 1879. As Boutari was the first to bottle wine in Greece, Naoussa was, by extension, among the first regions to be regularly listed on a label. Within the appellation, there is considerable awareness of and conversation around the presence of “crus.” While it’s hard to directly compare the 13 crus (it is rare for a winery to produce wine from more than one village), certain ones seem to stick out. Trifolos is located at a lower elevation, and the wines seem to possess more body and generosity, possibly due to the richer soils. Fytia is among the higher elevation subregions; the soil is more spare and rocky, and its wines are far more chiseled. Ramnista is the home of Kir-Yianni, one of the more modern and polished producers. Perhaps it is their influence, but the wines of Ramnista seem fuller in body, with smooth tannins and lifted aromatics. Setting aside regional expression, most producers seem to fall into one of two camps: traditional or modern. Traditional Xinomavro is lighter-bodied, tannic, and at times rustic, while modern Xinomavro offers more fruit, extraction, and a darker hue. Legally, the PDO also allows for semi-sweet Xinomavro, but these are never as successful as the dry styles. Outside of the PDO, Xinomavro is often blended with international varieties, such as Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, or Syrah. The PDO of Goumenissa is located to the northeast of Naoussa, at the foot of Mount Paiko. The vineyards are planted along the rolling foothills, over a narrower range of elevation (150 – 300 meters, or 490 – 985 feet). The soils tend to be deep clay-loam and the dominant aspect is south. This is the warmest of the three Xinomavro-dominant PDOs, and sunshine is ample. These conditions lend themselves to a riper and more generous style, an expression compounded by the dictates of the PDO that require Xinomavro be co-fermented with at least 20% Negoska, a softly structured and fruit-forward variety. Goumenissa has the least established reputation of Macedonia’s PDOs. This is partly because the region languished after phylloxera and didn’t really come back to life until Boutari moved in during the 1970s. Along the Aegean coast further to the east is an area known as Halkidiki. This is one of the most widely planted regions of Macedonia, and it is readily identified by its three finger-like peninsulas that extend into the sea. The central peninsula is home to the PDO Slopes of Meliton (Plagies Melitona), an appellation that applies solely to the vineyard of a single estate, the historic Domaine Porto Carras. With 450 hectares under vine, this one of the largest single vineyards in Greece. The soil is sandy loam with limestone, and the vineyards extend from 100 to 350 meters (330 – 1,150 feet) in elevation. Many of the slopes are steep, which necessitates terracing, and the climate is Mediterranean. The PDO allows production of a dry red made from Limnio with Cabernet Sauvignon and/or Cabernet Franc and a dry white made from Assyrtiko, Athiri, and Roditis. Granted in 1982, this was the first of two PDOs to allow international varieties. The next peninsula to the east is home to the famous Mount Athos Vineyard, defined as an Area PGI, the fruit from which is divided between the monk-owned Mylopotamos and Tsantali. This 70-hectare vineyard is an isolated pocket of vines, situated between heavy forest and the Aegean. Most of the vineyard sits between 220 and 250 meters (720 – 820 feet) and enjoys sandy clay loam and a decidedly Mediterranean climate. Over half of the vineyard is planted to Cabernet Sauvignon, with Grenache, Assyrtiko, Athiri, Limnio, Chardonnay, Xinomavro, and Roditis, in descending order of prevalence. This vineyard is famous not only for its beauty but for the mysticism that surrounds it. Over a dozen monasteries occupy this peninsula, which has been significant to the Eastern Orthodox Church for centuries. The vineyard is owned by the monasteries and no women are allowed to walk its vines. Heading back west along the coast toward Thessaloniki is the small but growing viticultural area of Epanomi. Its primary importance is as the home of Gerovassiliou, the eponymous winery of Evangelos Gerovassiliou, who grows Malagousia to great effect. When he decided to revitalize his father’s vineyard in 1981, there were no other producers in the area; now there are a half a dozen. Situated close to the coast, this area is quite flat and low in altitude, with soils of sandy clay studded by marine fossils. Gerovassiliou and his neighbors produce a broad range of wines that often combine Greek with international varieties. These wines are bottled as PGI Epanomi. Another region of note in Macedonia is Drama, which forms part of the eastern border with Thrace. Drama’s vineyards are clustered into two main areas ringed by three mountains—a long, skinny, northeast-facing site that hugs the slope of Mount Menikio and a broad, flat plain to the east of Drama where the vines compete with cereal grains. As Drama is relatively far inland, the climate is continental and relatively cool. International varieties dominate, along with smaller amounts of Limnio and Agiorgitiko. In the west of Macedonia is a rarely seen but traditional sweet wine called Siatista (PGI), made of dried Xinomavro and Moschomavro. PDOs: Amynteo, Goumenissa, Naoussa, Slopes of Meliton Regional PGIs: Macedonia District PGIs: Drama, Florina, Grevena, Halkidiki, Imathia, Kastoria, Kavala, Kozani, Pella, Pieria, Serres, Thessaloniki Area PGIs: Adriani, Agora, Epanomi, Ilion, Krania, Mount Athos, Nea Messimvria, Pangeon, Siatista, Sithonia, Slopes of Paiko, Slopes of Vertiskos, Thassos, Velventos Thessaly Thessaly (Thassalia) is a large, fertile plain surrounded by the Pindos Mountains, which include Mount Olympus in the east, the mountains marking a northeastern boundary between Thessaly and Macedonia. Due to this rare flat expanse, Thessaly is one of the few regions of Greece where the population derives most of its income from agriculture. Wine-grape viticulture tends to be relegated to the mountainous edge (table grapes and raisins are commonly cultivated on the plains). The mountains act as both wind shield and humidity trap, which aids farming. Thessaly is one of the few regions that abound in fresh water, boasting several rivers and regular runoff from snow-capped mountains. Most of the soils are composed of schist and grey clay, and the climate is Mediterranean with chilly winters. The region was once rich in indigenous varieties, but many of them were lost because of phylloxera. Today, Muscat of Hamburg and Roditis are the most widely planted. Muscat of Hamburg is more often used as a table grape or in the production of Tsipouro (Greek grappa) than in the production of wine, while Roditis is the feature grape of the Anchialos PDO, feeds local Retsina production, and is planted in various District and Area PGIs. Of the remaining indigenous varieties, Limniona is probably the most exciting. Though the variety is not featured in any PDOs, it can be bottled under a handful of PGIs. The wines tend to be dark and soft, with lifted, floral aromatics and a bright acidity. Domaine Zafeirakis makes an especially beautiful Limniona, which is reminiscent of Pinot Noir. Other varieties of local import include Assyrtiko, Malagousia, Batiki, Chardonnay, Limnio (to which Limniona is not related), Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah, and Merlot. Thessaly contains two districts and three PDOs, the most important of which is Rapsani . This appellation is composed of a handful of villages on the southeast-facing slopes of Mount Olympus. There, the vineyards stretch from 150 to 800 meters (490 – 2,625 feet). Rapsani can be considered by zones of quality based on elevation, with the zones running from 50 to 150 meters, 150 to 350 meters, and 350 to 800 meters. The soils tend to be light and rocky, with loess at the bottom stratum, sandy loam in the middle, and red-tinged ferric schist at the top. As with many other places in Greece, the finest wines are thought to come from the highest elevations. The climate is Mediterranean with high humidity, and hail is a regular winter concern. Greece’s smallest PDO, Rapsani has 60 producing hectares and 30 newly planted hectares as of 2017. The appellation was granted in 1971, when there was one winery. When Tsantali arrived in the late 1980s, the area was effectively abandoned and the vineyards needed major rehabilitation. Today, Tsantali owns no vineyards but vinifies 95% of the region’s fruit. The other 5% is divided between a handful of small local wineries. Rapsani is the only PDO to feature Xinomavro outside of Macedonia. Here, it must be co-fermented with varying percentages of Stavroto and Krasato. While historically the grapes were present in equal parts, that is not legally enforced, and in truth, many of Tsantali’s Rapsani bottlings tend to prioritize Xinomavro. In the blend, Krasato balances Xinomavro’s strict tendencies by adding softness and extract. Stavroto is the most difficult to cultivate, as it is easily infected by rot. When ripe, it offers low sugars, medium acidity, and high tannins. Compared to Macedonia’s Xinomavro-based reds, Rapsani wines tend to be a bit riper and softer, though still structural enough to withstand cellar aging. Thessaly’s other two PDOs are Anchialos and Messenikola. Messenikola is located on the southwest edge of the region. Granted in 1994, this is only the second of Greece’s PDOs to feature international varieties, as its dry reds are fashioned out of Mavro Messenikola, with a maximum combined total of 30% Carignan and Syrah. The appellation sits near the banks of Lake Plastira, on gravel-rich clay soils at elevations up to 750 meters (2,460 feet). The wines are middling in quality, and tend to be pale and low in extract. The wines of Anchialos are rarely seen on the market, but legally they should be composed of 80% Roditis with 20% Savatiano. For medium-sweet and medium-dry wines, oak aging is forbidden. Dry wines are defined by the fruity nature of the grapes, implying that skin contact would be avoided. PDOs: Anchialos, Messenikola, Rapsani Regional PGIs: Thessaly District PGIs: Karditsa, Magnissia Area PGIs: Elassona, Krania, Krannonas, Meteora, Tyrnavos Epirus Epirus is the westernmost region of mainland Greece, and the Ionian island of Corfu lingers just offshore. This is one of the most remote and mountainous areas of the country, with most of the region sitting at or above 700 meters (2,300 feet) in elevation. Prior to World War II, Epirus abounded in viticulture, with most wines consumed locally. The war saw the emptying of villages, however, and as the population declined, many vineyards were left to founder. Phylloxera’s arrival in the 1950s was the final nail in the coffin. The region is divided into four governmental districts, but only one, Ioannina, is defined as a District PGI. Ioannina is the largest and most northerly region and shares a border with Albania. Its soils are clay-based with moderate amounts of limestone, and it receives some of the highest rainfall in Greece. Within Ioannina are two main grapegrowing regions: the PDO of Zitsa and the Area PGI of Metsovo. While neither region produces a significant quantity of wine, both are regarded for their high quality. PDO Zitsa occupies a particularly limestone-rich elevated plateau near the center of the Ioannina PGI. The vineyards sit between 500 and 700 meters (1,640 – 2,295 feet) in elevation, and enjoy a cool continental climate that is influenced by the Pindos Mountains to the east and the Ionian Sea to the west. Debina is the main grape of the region, and the PDO allows it to be made into still, semi-sparkling, or sparkling wines—both dry and off-dry—with the sparkling wines fashioned by either the tank or traditional method. When made in a dry style via the traditional method, these are some of the finest sparkling wines in Greece: light-bodied with bright acidity and delicate aromas of green apple, lemon, and citrus flowers. PGI Metsovo, which sits at the eastern end of Ioannina, is best known for its Cabernet Sauvignon, though its original stab at this variety in the 1960s led to very green wines that were severely panned. Today, producers have figured out how to farm for proper ripeness, using a range of methods that include lowering yields. Cabernet is joined by two other red varieties in Metsovo—Bekari and Vlahiko. Both are indigenous to the area, with Bekari known for its dark hue and Vlahiko being high in acid but low in color and tannin. Other varieties seen in Epirus include Roditis, Malagousia, Chardonnay, Riesling, Traminer, and Sauvignon Blanc. PDOs: Zitsa Regional PGIs: Epirus District PGIs: Ioannina Area PGIs: Metsovo Central Greece Central Greece , also known as Sterea Ellada, possesses no PDOs, but the eastern half of the region is rich with Area PGIs. This is a broad geographical span that contains many subregions, notably the island of Evia and Attica. Sterea Ellada is strongly affiliated with the production of Retsina, and to this end, the dominant varieties are Savatiano and Roditis. While a handful of producers have established reputations for quality, most wines from this area are mass produced. Inoffensive yet forgettable, they are destined for the anonymous carafes of the many tavernas of Athens and the islands. The Pindos Mountains cover much of central Sterea Ellada, with plains on either side. This results in a complex topography with a wide diversity of soils and stark climatic differences. The western end of the region gets significant rainfall, the high elevation sites in the center can be cold, and the eastern edge is hot and arid. Sterea Ellada is home to seven regional units. Two of these, Attica and the island Evia, are District PGIs. Another two, Fthiotida and Viotia, contain Area PGIs within them. Viotia is also a PGI District for Retsina. It is directly north of Attica, sandwiched between the Corinthian and Evian gulfs. While also hot and dry, mountains protect much of this growing area from the warm Aegean winds that sweep Attica. The best vineyards are located on the north-facing slopes of Mount Parnitha, which can reach as high as 500 meters (1,640 feet) in elevation. Savatiano and Roditis are the most widely planted varieties. Other wine grapes include Malagousia, Assyrtiko, Sauvignon Blanc, Agiorgitiko, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, and Syrah. Fthiotida is located to the northwest of Viotia and shares a border with Thessaly. Historically, this was an important grapegrowing region, until the twin disasters of World War II and phylloxera saw many of its vineyards converted to other pursuits. The area came back into fashion in the early 1970s when the esteemed producer Hatzimichalis set up shop. The topography of Fthiotida is extremely diverse. It is effectively a valley basin, which extends from the sea and is surrounded by mountains. This creates a range of aspects, elevations, and mesoclimates that are difficult to generalize. That said, the region tends to be nearly as hot as Viotia, but with more mountain breezes. Interestingly, Savatiano is hardly seen in Fthiotida, partly because the region was reborn in a more modern era. In its place stands a bevy of international varieties, specifically Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Merlot. Evia PGI is Greece’s second largest island after Crete, and it closely traces the eastern edge of Central Greece. From a varietal perspective, Evia marries Central Greece and the Aegean Islands; while Savatiano dominates, Roditis, Malagousia, Agiorgitiko, and the commonly found international varieties comingle with the Aegean mainstays of Assyrtiko, Mandilaria, and Liatiko. The red variety Vradiano is local to Evia, though it does not represent significant plantings. Like the rest of Central Greece, Evia is mountainous, with an undulating topography, cooler temperatures in the north and hot, dry conditions in the south. Attica PGI (Attika, Attiki) is one of the most widely planted parts of Greece, though most of its vines are dedicated to the production of Retsina or mass-market wines. It is located at the southeastern tip of Central Greece and is surrounded on three sides by the Aegean Sea and its gulfs. While the Aegean does offer some moderating influence, it also introduces warm winds, which helps to make this one of the hottest and driest parts of Greece. This is compounded by the presence of mountains, which cut off Attica from any cooling northern breezes. In the east end of the region, the soils are more fertile and rich in loam, while limestone dominates in the west. Attica possesses 11 PGI Areas and can be broadly defined as North Attica, the coolest and least fertile; Mesogia, the flat plain to the east of Athens; and Megara to the west, which is the source of mostly bulk wine. Savatiano is the most important variety, with Roditis, Malagousia, Assyrtiko, Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, Agiorgitiko, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, and Syrah playing supporting roles. In recent years, Attica producer Papagiannakos has shown the heights of what is possible for both Attica and Savatiano. By focusing on old vines and top-shelf vinification techniques, he has produced varietal Savatiano that is both compelling and ageworthy, as well as more subtle interpretations of Retsina that challenge popular conceptions of the style. PDOs: None Regional PGIs: Sterea Ellada District PGIs: Attica, Evia Area PGIs: Anavyssos, Gerania, Ilion, Karystos, Koropi, Lilantio Pedio, Opountia Lokrida, Markopoulo, Martino, Opountia Pallini, Parnassos, Peanea, Ritsona, Slopes of Kitherona, Slopes of Knimida, Slopes of Parnitha, Slopes of Pentelito, Spata, Thebes, Valley of Atalanti, Vilitsa Traditional Retsina Area PGIs: Retsina of Attica, Retsina of Evia, Retsina of Gialtra, Retsina of Halkida, Retsina of Karystos, Retsina of Koropi, Retsina of Markopoulos, Retsina of Megara, Retsina of Mesogia, Retsina of Pallini, Retsina of Peania, Retsina of Pikermi, Retsina of Spata, Retsina of Thebes, Retsina of Viotia The Peloponnese The Peloponnese is the southernmost section of the Greek mainland. This massive landmass is very nearly an island, save for the presence of a narrow land bridge that qualifies it as a peninsula. It is significant to Greek wine both in terms of quantity and quality: its Nemea and Mantinia PDOs are two of the most lauded in Greece; its western shores are home to Domaine Mercouri, one of Greece’s top boutique estates; Patras is physically the largest PDO of Greece; and the newest PDO of the Peloponnese, Monemvasia (Malvasia), honors what was once the most famous wine of the ancient world. The Peloponnese is separated from the mainland by the narrow Gulf of Corinth. Like much of Greece, it is mountainous, with seven different peaks approaching 2,000 meters (6,560 feet) in elevation. These mountains, constituted of mainly limestone, and the southern shores of the Peloponnese mark the beginning of the Hellenic Trench, an important fault area where the African plate and the Eurasian plate meet. The northeastern portion of the Peloponnese, the peninsula of Athens, and the island of Evia are all in an active volcanic zone. Aside from the very center of the peninsula, which is continental, the climate is categorized as hot Mediterranean, though proximity to the coast and especially elevation serve to mitigate the heat. The Peloponnese is the most extensively planted section of Greece, with most viticulture concentrated in the north, specifically in the PGI Districts of Achaia, Corinth, and Arcadia. Rainfall tends to be highest in the west, while conditions in the east are arid. This disparity—as well as that between the coastal and inland areas, and between low and high elevations—makes for a staggering variety of wines and wine styles. Indeed, the Peloponnese boasts the greatest viticultural diversity in all of Greece, with an impressive number of indigenous varieties. The peninsula contains seven PDOs, three for dry wines and four for sweet. Nemea is by far the most important. Its reds are composed entirely of Agiorgitiko, whose charming nature has trumped its difficult name and made it one of the most revered wines of Greece. Wines made from Agiorgitiko are often referred to as the “Blood of Hercules,” as legend has it that this wine gave him the strength to defeat the Nemean lion. The production of both dry and sweet reds is permitted in the PDO, though the dry wines are far more common and far more successful than the dessert styles. Historically, dry Nemean reds were crafted in a light and fruity style, occasionally via carbonic maceration. Starting in the mid-1980s, Skouras modernized Nemea through his popular Megas Oenos, a blend of Agiorgitiko and Cabernet Sauvignon that aged in new French barrels. Later, in the 1990s, Gaia estate pioneered a richer, more extractive style of pure Agiorgitiko. There, Agiorgitiko was treated more like a noble grape, subjected to deeper extraction and more serious oak aging. The results were roundly praised, and this approach has since gained in popularity. By law, sweet wines can be produced by vinifying either late harvest or air-dried grapes, or through fortification. Rosés are common and tend to be deeply colored and fruit forward, though they cannot be labeled as a PDO. Blends of Agiorgitiko with international varieties are also popular, especially those that feature Cabernet Sauvignon. Megas Oenos, produced by Skouras, is the most famous example of this style. A view from Nemea Nemea is in the Corinth district, which occupies the northeast corner of the Peloponnese (though a small portion of the PDO crosses over into the Argolida district to the south). This is a sizable appellation that contains 17 villages and is divided into three distinct zones based on altitude. The lowest zone extends from 200 to 450 meters (650 – 1,475 feet) and features high temperatures and rich soils that are dominated by red clay. Historically, this is where dessert wines and the lightest and most fruit-forward dry reds were sourced. The second zone ranges from 450 to 650 meters (1,475 – 2,135 feet) in elevation. This is a notably cooler area, with poor and varied soils. The final tier sits between 650 and 850 meters (2,135 – 2,790 feet) and is the coolest of the three, with considerable limestone. Historically, the middle region was the sweet spot for serious dry reds, while the upper zone was mined for rosé. That approach is changing, however, as producers embrace the more light and sculptural style of dry red that can be coaxed from the highest slopes. As in Naoussa, Nemean producers are trying to draw consumer attention to “crus,” some of which are beginning to register. One of the most famous is Koutsi, a limestone-rich region that sits at around 650 meters (2,130 feet) and is the headquarters for Gaia. In the center of the Peloponnese lies the district of Arcadia, which touches the Argolikos Gulf in the east and then extends and expands inland. This is the coolest, most continental part of the Peloponnese, and most of the region is planted to white grapes. The PDO of Mantinia is located at its center, just north of Tripoli, the capital city of the Peloponnese. Here, the soils are rich in clay and rocky, tinged lightly red with iron in many places. Mantinia occupies a plateau that averages 750 meters (2,460 feet) in elevation and is surrounded by high mountains. These mountains sequester the region, imbuing it with a separate, singular climate wherein winter snows are common. As a result, ripeness is not always a given, a rare phenomenon in Greece. A vineyard in Mantinia According to PDO dictates, Mantinia wines must be made with a minimum of 85% Moschofilero, though in practice most are varietal. If blended, the balance should be composed of Asproudes (the generic term for indigenous white grapes). In Mantinia, this typically refers to Glikerithra, a high-sugar, low-acid variety of middling reputation. The resulting wines can be still (only dry) or sparkling (tank or traditional method, ranging from dry to sweet), and tend to be light-bodied and floral, with a high acidity and heady perfume. Beyond Moschofilero and Glikerithra, Arcadia is planted to Roditis, Savatiano, Lagorthi, Assyrtiko, Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, Agiorgitiko, Mavroudi, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Merlot. The District PGI of Achaia is located to the north of Arcadia and west of Corinth, forming the northernmost coast of the Peloponnese. This is a very significant district for viticulture, as both wine grapes and raisins are widely cultivated. Achaia’s mountains are especially dramatic, with the three massive peaks along its southern end effectively cutting it off from all points south. Achaia has some of the steepest slopes in Greece, most of which face north toward the Corinthian Gulf. The climate is warm, so elevation is essential, though the gulf does provide a moderate cooling influence. Achaia’s main city, Patras, sits close to the water and is associated with all four PDOs—Patras, Muscat of Patras, Muscat of Rio Patras, and Mavrodaphne of Patras. Of Achaia’s four PDOs, only Patras (Patra) is for dry wine, which must be made entirely of Roditis. At their best, Patras whites tend to be both high-pitched and creamy, with a lemon-scented nose. Clonal selection is critical, as some local strains of Roditis are geared more for production than for quality. Elevation is also essential, and while the region stretches from 250 to 900 meters (820 – 2,955 feet), the best wines tend to hail from high on the slopes. Mavrodaphne of Patras is the most famous of Achaia’s sweet wines, though it is not as widely admired as Cephalonia’s Mavrodaphne. Mavrodaphne of Patras was first created in 1861 by Achaia Clauss, a winery of great historic significance. Founder Gustav Clauss had spent time in the Douro before establishing his estate, and had originally crafted his wine in Port’s image. Legally, Mavrodaphne of Patras must be composed of a minimum of 51% Mavrodaphne with the balance of Corinthiaki, which is more commonly used for raisins. While the inclusion of fresh Corinthiaki grapes leads to richer, sweeter wines, the best producers are eschewing it to focus exclusively on Mavrodaphne. The wines are always fortified, but this can occur at different times. Top producers will add spirits to arrest an already in-process fermentation (the same method used to produce a French vin doux naturel), while more production-oriented wineries will simply blend spirit and unfermented must (akin to mistelle or vin de liqueur). The wine is then aged in oak for at least a year, but extended aging is common among quality producers and solera systems are often employed. To be labeled as a reserve, a wine must age a minimum of three years—two years in cask and one year in bottle. Vieille reserve requires a minimum of five years of aging, including at least two years in cask and two years in bottle. And grande reserve must age a minimum of seven years, with at least three years in cask and three years in bottle. Mavrodaphne of Patras can be bottled as either a vintage or a non-vintage blend, though a non-vintage wine must be aged for at least three years after the blend is completed. The appellation extends from sea level to 250 meters (820 feet). Muscat of Patras and Muscat of Rio Patras are both made exclusively from Muscat Blanc à Petits Grains, but differ significantly in their expression. As most of the Muscat of Patras appellation is on clay-based soils, the wines tend to be richer in texture, even heavy. The wine is also sourced from lower elevations, from sea level to 250 meters (820 feet). The Rio Patras appellation is closer to the coast and has a milder climate, which results in more high-toned, floral wines. Wines are sourced from elevations of 0 to 450 meters (0 – 1,475 feet). Both PDOs can be made via three different methods: fortification before fermentation (vin de liqueur), fortification after some fermentation (vin doux naturel), or by vinifying dried fruit. Wines produced with the vin doux naturel method and hailing from select vineyards can be labeled as grand cru. Outside of the PDOs, Achaia is planted to a mix of varieties, both native and international, with the most significant being Assyrtiko, Moschofilero, Lagorthi, Malagousia, Robola, Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, Agiorgitiko, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, and Syrah. The Ilia district lies to the southwest of Achaia, and most of its coastline traces the Ionian Sea. This is one of the more flat, fertile, and rainy parts of the Peloponnese, so agriculture plays a significant role in the local economy. The district is best known as the home of Domaine Mercouri, one of Greece’s finest wine estates. This historic winery got its start in 1864 when, because of ties to Italy, it famously planted Refosco (known locally as Mercouri). Domaine Mercouri ceased operations in 1960 but was resuscitated in 1985 by the third and fourth generations of the family. Today, indigenous Greek varieties such as Mavrodaphne, Agiorgitiko, Assyrtiko, and Avgoustiatis (an aromatic Ionian red grape) are expertly combined with both French (Syrah, Mourvèdre, Viognier, Grenache) and Italian (Ribolla Gialla, Refosco) varieties, the results of which are bottled as either PGI Ilia or Letrina. Mercouri’s success has inspired other wineries to set up shop, but Ilia remains a minor region from a wine perspective. Laconia PGI, located in the southeast of the peninsula, is the final district of viticultural note in the Peloponnese. It is less mountainous than other regions, with inland plains and rolling hills near the coast. While not widely planted, Laconia is rich in indigenous varieties, many of which can only be found in old-vine field blends. Though these vineyards survived, winemaking virtually disappeared from the region following World War II, and most of the active wineries have been founded since the 1990s. Laconia is historically significant: not only is it the home of Sparta, it was also once the source for the most famous wine of Greece, Malvasia. The uniquely confusing history of Malvasia begins in the port town of Monemvasia, which is also the name for one of Greece’s indigenous white grapes. This town gave its name to a dessert wine (likely made from a blend of grapes, which may or may not have included Monemvasia), which was traded widely starting in the 13th century. When the Venetians occupied the Peloponnese, they renamed both the port town and the wine Malvasia, which has nothing to do with the grape by that name. The name Malvasia became so synonymous with dessert wine that Crete (which was also under Venetian rule) began producing its own Malvasia, from its own local grapes. Centuries passed, production dwindled down to a trickle, and the area’s cachet faded, but in 2010, after much lobbying by the Monemvasia winery, the Greek government awarded the region with a PDO in a bid to resuscitate its legacy. They named it Monemvasia-Malvasia , thereby linking both monikers. Today, the wine must be made from a minimum of 51% Monemvasia, with the balance composed of Assyrtiko, Asproudes, and Kydonitsa (a low-acid, high-alcohol white grape). The grapes must be dried, though fortification is optional. The wine is then aged in barrel at least two years prior to release and can be bottled as either a single vintage or a blend of vintages, wherein the most recent vintage is listed on the label. Elevations range from sea level to 500 meters (1,640 feet). PDOs: Mantinia, Mavrodaphne of Patras, Monemvasia-Malvasia, Muscat of Patras, Muscat of Rio Patras, Nemea, Patras Regional PGIs: Peloponnese District PGIs: Achaia, Argolida, Arkadia, Ilia, Korinthos, Laconia, Messinia Area PGIs: Klimenti, Letrina, Pisatis, Pylia, Slopes of Egialia, Slopes of Petroto, Tegea, Trifilia Ionian Islands The Ionian Islands sit off the western coast of mainland Greece. They take their name from the Ionian Sea, which is the southern continuation of the Adriatic. These islands regularly receive some of the highest levels of rainfall in Greece, which makes fungal infections a regular concern. While the climate is classified as Mediterranean, it is milder here than in the rest of the country. These islands are also mountainous and steep, especially when compared to the Aegean Islands, and feature a wide range of soil types planted to a slew of indigenous varieties. Interestingly, the Ionian Island group is the only part of Greece to claim no Regional PGI. These islands have a unique history as they never fell under the control of the Ottoman Empire, and so their wine production wasn’t subjected to the punitive taxes experienced by the rest of Greece. Instead, the Ionian Islands were ruled by the Venetians for over 400 years (1386 – 1797), briefly belonged to France, and then became a British protectorate until joining the Greek state in 1864. As the Venetians and the British were supportive of viticulture, the wine industry thrived, despite the islands’ relatively remote location. There are seven main Ionian islands, but only four are viticulturally significant. The largest and most important is Cephalonia (Kefalonia), which is the only Ionian island to possess any PDOs. This island has a long history under vine, but its industry was slashed to a shadow of itself following the devastating earthquake of 1953. Thousands of residents were killed, and many survivors fled the island afterward in search of more stable ground. This resulted in a dramatic drop in wine production that has never fully recovered. But what Cephalonia currently lacks in quantity it makes up for in quality, especially with its dry white wines from the Robola of Cephalonia PDO . Elegant and refreshing, these can be some of the finest whites in Greece. The appellation itself is fragmented, composed of separate areas in the central and southern parts of the island. While all vineyards must be situated at or above 50 meters (165 feet) in elevation, the best wines tend to come from between 400 and 850 meters (1,310 — 2,790 feet) on the rocky, limestone-rich slopes of Mount Ainos. Around 85% of all PDO Robola wines are made by a single source, the Cooperative of Cephalonia Robola Producers. That said, the smaller wineries are leading the quality charge, especially Gentilini, which has experimented with oak aging and natural fermentation to great effect, and Sclavos, one of the few biodynamic estates in Greece. The Muscat of Cephalonia PDO is located on the western end of the island. This dessert wine, composed exclusively from the Muscat Blanc variety, can be forged via three different methods: vin doux, vin doux naturel, and vin naturellement doux. Only those wines that are made via the vin doux naturel method and are sourced from select vineyards may be labeled as grand cru. The designation also requires that the grapes meet a higher ripeness requirement and be cropped at less than half of the yields required for other wines. Elevations range from 0 to 200 meters (0 – 655 feet). The Mavrodaphne of Cephalonia PDO is scattered across the island and tends to feature heavier clay-based soils. It has a qualitative advantage over Mavrodaphne of Patras in that Cephalonia features a particularly well-regarded clone of Mavrodaphne: Tsigelo. To be labeled with the PDO, the wine must be fortified, though no specific method is required. Beyond the PDOs, some excellent dry Mavrodaphne is being produced, and the indigenous white grapes Tsaousi and Moschatella are widely planted. Tsaousi doubles as a table grape, and Moschatella makes for heady, aromatic wines reminiscent of Muscat (to which it is not related). Elevations range from 0 to 450 meters (0 – 1,475 feet). Zakynthos is the most southerly Ionian island and has the warmest climate. It is located just off the coast of the Peloponnese and is visible from Domaine Mercouri. Zakynthos is less dramatic from a topographic perspective, with lower elevations, flatter slopes, and more fertile soils. Because this island was relatively easy to farm, the Venetians planted much of it to raisins. Zakynthos still boasts raisin vineyards today, but it is also home to over 30 indigenous varieties, a remarkable number for such a small place. Its best-known wine is Verdea, Greece’s only other traditional PGI wine beside Retsina. Verdea has been produced since the 19th century, and PGI regulations dictate it be composed of a minimum 50% percent Skiadopoulo, a white grape with a high sugar content and moderate acidity. Many other varieties can be included, but Pavlos, Robola, and Goustolidi are most common. Traditionally, this wine is high in alcohol and dry, with an oxidative tone from extended oak aging. Recently, some producers are freshening up the style in a bid to increase its popularity. Nonetheless, this wine remains a rarity, even inside Greece. Lefkada is located to the north of Cephalonia; of all the Ionian Islands, this one sits closest to the mainland, to which it is connected by a bridge. Lefkada is a small, steep island, dominated by the presence of Mount Elati. It is not particularly important viticulturally, and is mostly planted to the high-sugar, phenolic red grape Vertzami (also known Lefkaditiko). Corfu is the most northerly Ionian island and is far better known as a vacation destination than a center of wine production. It is mostly flat with one major peak, Pandokratoras. Red varieties, though not produced under the PGI Corfu, tend to be planted in the more steeply sloped northern terrain, while white grapes like the green-hued Kakotrigis and Petrokoritho are generally planted in the rocky, lower elevation sites in the south. PDOs: Mavrodaphne of Cephalonia, Muscat of Cephalonia, Robola of Cephalonia Regional PGIs: None District PGIs: Corfu, Lefkada, Zakynthos Area PGIs: Halikouna, Mantzavinata, Metaxata, Slopes of Ainos, Verdea Aegean Islands The Aegean is the primary sea of Greece, and within its waves are thousands of islands, a handful of them viticulturally significant. Crete, the giant landmass that marks the southern limit of the Aegean, is a juggernaut of production, accounting for 11.9% of Greek vines, while all the other islands together represent 10.67%. This places over a fifth of Greek vineyards in the Aegean . Happily for wine lovers, but perhaps frustratingly for students, the resulting wine is fragmented into hundreds of different faces, as each island has its own varieties, traditions, and personality. Within the Aegean are four island groups: the Cyclades, the Dodecanese, the North Aegean, and the Sporades. As the Sporades don’t really contribute to the wine industry, they are excluded from this guide. Aegean Islands: Cyclades The Cyclades, named for the circular shape of its formation, is a cluster of islands located in the south Aegean, just north of Crete. It encompasses 33 major islands, including the vacation destination of Mykonos, plus several smaller islands, many of them uninhabited. From a viticultural perspective, the most important are Santorini and Paros, with Santorini being especially revered for the quality of its dry white and dessert wines. While these islands boast a long history under vine, the wines, with a few exceptions, were traditionally sold as generics or blended with other wines. During France’s phylloxera crisis, the islands joined the rest of Greece in supplying grapes and wine to desperate vignerons, but France’s sudden recovery in the 1890s resulted in an almost total collapse of Aegean winemaking. Vineyards remained in the ground, however, and cooperatives became the primary home for their fruit. For a long time, the populations of these islands subsisted at the poverty level, until the rise of tourism in the 1970s brought new avenues for income. Now, tourism is the dominant industry, especially in the Cyclades, which are closer to mainland Greece than most of the islands. While the swell of tourism was a boon in that it created new markets for wine, the subsequent rush of development has displaced many vineyards and continues to threaten even more. In general, the Cyclades experience some of the hottest and driest conditions in Greece. This is compounded by relentless winds, which can interfere with fruit set in the spring and enhance water stress throughout the year. The especially strong Meltemi, which kicks up most significantly in late summer, impedes tourism (its gusts are sufficient to ground planes) and stalls photosynthesis (the high winds cause the leaf stomata to close). This can be challenging to manage but is considered essential to extending the growing season and preventing Cyclades wines from becoming overripe. As the soils are extremely poor and lacking in clay, phylloxera has never infected these islands. This makes the Cyclades home to some of the oldest vines and root systems in Greece. Regional compositions vary, but across the islands, the dominant white grapes are Assyrtiko and Monemvasia, and the most widely planted red is Mandilaria. Santorini Today, Santorini is one of the jewels of Greece, with stark, resplendent architecture and wines that are among the most fetishized of Greece’s exports. This success is a modern phenomenon, however. As recently as a few decades ago, the people of Santorini were struggling to get by, and most wines were produced by a large cooperative. While so sudden a turnabout may seem dramatic, such is the history of Santorini: full of highs, lows, and remarkable twists of fortune. The rocky cliffs and vines of Santorini Santorini first came under vine during the Bronze Age, when it was a Minoan colony called Thera. Back then, the island looked much different, as it didn’t assume its current shape until it erupted dramatically during the 17th century BCE. This was a cataclysmic explosion that caused massive tsunamis and is credited with wiping out the Minoan civilization. Much of the island was either scattered into the atmosphere or sank into the sea (rumored to be the origin of the Atlantis myth). What is now the crescent-shaped archipelago of Santorini is just the unsubmerged sections of the ancient volcano’s caldera. This volcano is still active and erupted as recently as 1950. The Phoenicians followed the Minoans in custody of Thera, which then became a Spartan colony in the ninth century BCE. In 146 BCE, Santorini and the rest of Greece came under Roman rule before joining the Byzantine Empire in 330 CE. It was the Byzantines who changed the island’s name to Santorini, in honor of Saint Irene. Ottomans then occupied the island from 1576 to 1831, a dim time for viticulture, before Santorini and Greece were liberated in 1832. Santorini possesses incredibly poor volcanic soils that offer almost no organic matter. This soil is so infertile that even olive trees can’t thrive. Aside from capers and vines, cherry tomatoes were an important Santorini export, but that industry was effectively wiped out after a massive earthquake in the 1950s destroyed the factories. The decades that followed were grim for the citizens of Santorini, until tourism accelerated in the 1970s. Since 1947, the sole commercial wine producer on Santorini was the cooperative Santo, which is still in operation today. Smaller outfits called kanavas had long peppered the island, but their production was mainly confined to home use. One such kanava , owned by the Argyros family, expanded in scale in the 1970s and is now a top producer. Next came Boutari, the first major outside winery to set up shop on Santorini, with an inaugural vintage in 1989. Boutari worked to revitalize the local industry and made huge strides in quality by picking earlier than was traditional and introducing technologies such as stainless steel and temperature control. The following decade saw a handful of other key wineries open. Hatzidakis came to Santorini as Boutari’s winemaker before purchasing his own vineyard in 1996, and Sigalas and Gaia, another outsider, also got their start in the 1990s. These estates are some of the most renowned in Greece, and in addition to raising the bar in Santorini, the quality of their wines echoed across the country, inspiring a new generation of Greek vintners. These producers were certainly skilled, but they were also aided by the unique nature of Santorini’s vineyards. Much of Santorini’s soil is tinted black with volcanic basalt that sits atop metamorphosed limestone and schist. Because of the utter lack of clay, phylloxera never took hold, and many of Santorini’s vines have root systems that are several hundred years in age. The climate is hot and exceedingly dry, and the island contains neither rivers nor lakes to supply fresh water. Indeed, for much of the growing season, morning fog and dew are the only sources of moisture. To capture this, vines are trained in a distinctive low-lying basket shape called kouloura or stefani . This method of training also serves to protect both vines and fruit from the angry winds that regularly whip the island. Vineyards are scattered throughout Santorini but tend to be concentrated in the center and along the west coast. This is not a particularly high-elevation island; vineyards are located between 0 and 300 meters (0 – 985 feet). The other tiny islands that form the Santorini complex are also eligible for the appellation but are sparsely planted. In 2018, it was announced that Biblia Chora, the famous Macedonian producer, will establish an estate on Thirassia, which enjoys a similar soil and climatic profile to Santorini proper. The basket-shaped kouloura training system typical of Santorini Historically, Santorini was home to a host of indigenous varieties, and while several dozen still exist, a handful dominate. Assyrtiko is by far the most widely planted, accounting for roughly 80% of all vines. The other important white grapes are Athiri and Aidani. These are typically used as Assyrtiko’s blending partners, though Aidani is occasionally vinified on its own, yielding creamy, waxy, floral wines of moderate acidity. Other indigenous white grapes include Thrapsathiri and Platani, but these are planted in insignificant quantities. Only 15% of Santorini’s vineyards are dedicated to red grapes, the two most important of which are Mandilaria and Mavrotragano. Varietal Mavrotragano wines are occasionally seen and can be successful, yielding dark and dusty wines with a black fruited, slightly herbal nose. Aidani Mavro and Mavrathiro are also present, but in scant amounts. Across all varieties, yields are extremely low on Santorini, especially for old-vine Assyrtiko. Santorini’s single PDO is inclusive of a range of wine styles. The most important of these is the dry white wine produced from a minimum of 85% Assyrtiko blended with Aidani and Athiri. These are distinctive, powerful, though not especially aromatic, wines of depth. They tend to have higher alcohol levels, intense acidity, and elevated phenolics. While the dominant mode of production includes fermentation in stainless steel, the use of oak or acacia barrels is not uncommon. Vinsanto, the famous dessert wine of the island, is also included in the PDO. This wine must be made from a minimum of 51% Assyrtiko, with Aidani and Athiri composing the balance. Legally, Vinsanto must be produced using dried grapes, with or without fortification, though fortification is rarely if ever practiced. Following drying, the grapes are pressed, and the resulting wine is aged in barrel for a minimum of two years, though top producers often keep the wine in barrel for far longer. Nykteri is also included in the PDO. This unusual dry wine is a historical product of Santorini, made with very ripe grapes that are harvested before dawn and pressed within a day. The wine is then aged for a minimum of three months in barrel, though longer is common, and sometimes, flor develops. The result is a full-bodied, distinctive wine high in both alcohol and acidity. Outside of the PDO are dry reds made from Mavrotragano (sometimes with Mandilaria) and a red dessert wine called Mezza, which is produced from air-dried Mandilaria grapes. Paros The island of Paros sits in the center of the Cyclades group, and as a result is slightly more sheltered than its sister islands. While arguably more famous for its marble than its wines, Paros does possess two PDOs, Paros and Malvasia of Paros . Paros is a flat island interrupted by a central peak, Mount Profitis, which reaches over 750 meters (2,460 feet) in elevation. Climatically, Paros is extremely hot and dry but less windy and more humid than Santorini. The soils are a fertile combination of sand, loam, and limestone. Vineyards are found across the island, from 0 to 750 meters (0 – 2,460 feet), but the best sites occupy the mountain slopes at elevations of 250 to 400 meters (820 – 1,310 feet). The main varieties are Mandilaria, Monemvasia, Assyrtiko, and Savatiano, though Roditis and Mavro Aidani are also present. The PDO of Paros allows the production of dry white wine from Monemvasia and dry red wine from a minimum of 35% Mandilaria co-fermented with Monemvasia. The latter is the only instance of a dry red PDO wine in Greece that allows the inclusion of a white grape. Malvasia of Paros is a sweet wine made from sun-dried grapes, Monemvasia with a maximum of 15% Assyrtiko. Fortification is optional, but the wines must be aged for a minimum of two years to be labeled with a vintage. If vintages are blended, the wines may be labeled with an average age in four-year increments if aged for at least four years (e.g., 4, 8, 12, 16 years old). PDOs: Malvasia Paros, Paros, Santorini Regional PGIs: Aegean Sea District PGIs: Cyclades Area PGIs: Syros, Thapsana Aegean Islands: Dodecanese The remote Dodecanese Islands are located to the east of the Cyclades, close to the Turkish coast. This group is composed of 12 islands, but Rhodes is of serious viticultural note. Kos, which is unusually fertile and verdant for an Aegean island, has a small but insignificant wine industry. Rhodes Rhodes is the largest of the Dodecanese Islands. Its landscape is dominated by Mount Atavyros, which exerts considerable influence on the island’s viticulture. Vineyards are planted between sea level and 600 meters (1,970 feet). Across the island, the soils are a combination of sand, clay, and limestone, but are rockier and more infertile at higher elevations. Rhodes is rather hot and dry, with very mild winters. Though rainfall is scarce, Rhodes possesses a surprising amount of fresh water reserves, which can be used for irrigation. The aggressive nature of its climate makes Rhodes’ tradition of sparkling wine seem a bit surprising, but for decades this was a regular source of “Greek Champagne.” The main producer, CAIR, is an unofficial cooperative that was founded in 1928 and established the island’s reputation for sparkling. Though a handful of boutique producers grew around it, the economic crisis of 2008 caused many to close, and today CAIR once again dominates production. The main grapes of Rhodes are Athiri, which excels on the upper slopes, and Mandilaria (also known as Amorgiano), typically found at lower elevations. Muscat Blanc, known locally as Moschato Aspro, is also planted, as are Assyrtiko, Malagousia, the indigenous Mavrothiriko, and a significant quantity of French grapes (including Ugni Blanc, Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, and Grenache). The Rhodes PDO covers a range of wines—white, red, and rosé—which can all be made in either dry, semi-dry, or semi-sweet styles. The PDO also allows for sparkling wine, both white and rosé, which can range from dry to sweet. White still or sparkling wines must be composed of a minimum of 70% Athiri (with a balance of Assyrtiko and Malagousia), while reds or rosés must be composed of a minimum of 70% Mandilaria (with a balance of Mavrothiriko). Muscat of Rhodes (rarely seen in the market) must be made entirely of Muscat Blanc and can be produced via the vin doux, vin doux naturel, or vin naturellement doux method. Those made in the vin doux naturel style and sourced from select vineyards may be labeled as grand cru. PDOs: Muscat of Rhodes, Rhodes Regional PGIs: Aegean Sea District PGIs: Dodecanese Area PGIs: Kos Aegean Islands: North Aegean The North Aegean Islands are located to the north of the Dodecanese and far enough east that, like many Greek islands, most sit closer to Turkey than to mainland Greece. While summers are hot, dry, and windy, the winters are colder and more rain soaked here than in the rest of the Aegean, and the heat spikes are less extreme. There are five main islands in the North Aegean, and two of them possess PDOs for sweet Muscat: Lemnos and Samos. Ikaria, an Area PGI, once had a significant wine culture. In antiquity, it was the source of the famous Pramnian red, a traditionally high-alcohol wine made from the Fokiano grape. Today, however, it is a minor player at best. It is home to only four producers, and its dominant grape is Mandilaria, though the white grape Begleri is the focus of the more modern wine movement. Similarly, the once-robust wine industry of the district of Chios has declined to the point of obscurity, though some are working to revive its ancient wine traditions. With a PGI created in 2010, Lesvos has limited viticulture and is better known as a source of Ouzo, but its industry is growing. Eresos-Antissa, Kalloni, and Plomari are all expected to earn Area PGI soon. Samos Sweet Muscat from Samos is among the most famous wines of Greece, and the story of its rise is fascinating. Historically, Samos was known for dry red wines, but its viticultural traditions were interrupted in the latter half of the 15th century when most of the islanders fled after being constantly overrun by pirates. Samos remained virtually uninhabited for nearly a century, until the Ottoman rulers offered incentives for citizens to return. These new settlers planted new vineyards, and Muscat Blanc was a popular choice. The arrival of phylloxera at the end of the 20th century caused further adjustments to Samos’ varietal makeup, and Muscat Blanc became even more prevalent. In 1934, a law was passed stating that only wines made from Muscat could claim a Samos origin, which cemented the variety’s hegemony and served as a rough approximation of Greece’s first appellation. That same year, the United Winemaking Agricultural Cooperative of Samos (UWC Samos) was founded. Today, 95% of the island’s vineyards are dedicated to Muscat Blanc, referred to locally as Moschato Aspro. The remaining 5% of vineyard land is mainly dedicated to two red grapes: Ritino and Fokiano. Historically Samos’ wines were vinified exclusively by the co-op, but recent legal changes have allowed for the establishment of a handful of small producers. Ouzo Along with Tsipouro, Ouzo is one of the national spirits of Greece. Both are distilled from grape pomace, but while Tsipouro is occasionally anise flavored, Ouzo is always anise flavored. Often, other flavoring agents are added as well, but the precise recipes are secrets closely guarded by the distilleries. When first poured, it is clear, but the addition of water or ice causes oils to come out of solution, and the liquid takes on a cloudy appearance. Ouzo is generally served with small-plate dishes called mezedes , similar to appetizers, or during celebrations like weddings. Ouzo production has a long history in Greece, but the first commercial distillery, Tyrnavos, opened in 1856. In 2006, Ouzo was granted protected (PDO) status from the EU. Minimum allowed ABV is 37.5%. Opa! Samos is a very steep island with granitic soils, where the topography is dominated by Mount Ampelos. Vineyards are planted between 0 and 900 meters (0 – 2,955 feet), and most, but not all, of the island is eligible for the PDO. Though there is a range of altitudes and aspects, the best vineyards tend to be planted at high elevations on terraced, north-facing slopes. Some dry PGI wines are produced, but dessert PDO Muscat is the primary focus. The Slopes of Ambelos PGI is a specific zone of the island that pertains to the production of dry whites from Muscat. It is worth noting that Samos is the only Muscat-based PDO that does not include the grape in the name of the appellation. Samos Muscat can be naturally sweet or fortified before or during fermentation to retain sugar, and can be made from fresh or sun-dried grapes. Those wines made using the vin doux naturel approach and hailing from select vineyards are eligible for grand cru designation. Both oak-aged and unoaked Muscat are produced. This wine has an especially strong international presence, with significant exports to France. The United Winemaking Agricultural Cooperative of Samos is the island’s dominant producer, not only historically but also in terms of volume, and it is widely acknowledged for the quality of its wines. UWC Samos produces several different wines that range from dry to sweet but is best known for its dessert line. The entry-level Samos Vin Doux is the co-op’s most important wine from a production standpoint, but there are also three premium dessert wines. Nectar is made from dried grapes fermented without fortification (vin naturellement doux) and is aged in oak for six years (formerly three) before release. The Anthemia also spends a good amount of time in oak (generally five years), but is produced via the vin doux method, wherein the unfermented must is fortified. This makes for a primary fruit flavor, given complexity by the many years in oak. The grand cru is sourced from a select group of vineyards above 400 meters (1,310 feet) in elevation, and yields are kept quite low. Though sweet, this is generally the “driest” of the dessert wines, as it completes much of its fermentation prior to a light fortification (vin doux naturel). This wine sees no oak so tends to be lighter and brighter in hue than the amber Nectar and Anthemia. Lemnos Lemnos (sometimes spelled Limnos) is the origin of the grape Limnio, though this variety no longer plays a starring role on this island. Here, Muscat of Alexandria takes center stage, and both dry and sweet wines are made from its fruit. The PDO of Lemnos allows for dry red from Limnio to be made (here called Kalambaki) along with dry, semi-dry, and semi-sweet Muscat. Fully sweet Muscats belong to the Muscat of Lemnos PDO , wherein the grapes may be dried and/or fortified. These wines are generally considered second in quality (more fruit forward and simple) to Muscat of Samos. This is likely due to their reliance on Muscat of Alexandria, rather than the smaller-berried Muscat Blanc variety. Wine from select estate vineyards that adhere to lower yield restrictions are eligible for grand cru designation. Lemnos is one of the hottest and driest islands in the North Aegean cluster. It is also especially flat. The soils are volcanic in origin and rich with limestone, and most of the vineyards are found on the cooler, western end of the island, between 0 and 300 meters (0 – 985 feet) in elevation. PDOs: Lemnos, Muscat of Lemnos, Samos Regional PGIs: Aegean Sea District PGIs: Chios Area PGIs: Ikaria, Lesvos, Slopes of Ambelos Crete The story of Greek wine begins on Crete , its largest and southernmost island. There, the technologically advanced Minoan civilization (the first to master indoor plumbing!) produced the inaugural Greek wines before spreading the knowledge of its manufacture to Santorini and the mainland. The history of Cretan wine since that time has been dramatic, but the period of Venetian rule (1204 – 1669) was particularly auspicious. The Venetians were encouraging of viticulture in general and established the island’s tradition of Malvasia dessert wine production. These were modeled after the popular wines from the Peloponnesian port of Monemvasia, a legacy that was recently honored with the creation of two PDOs: Malvasia Candia and Malvasia of Sitia. Crete’s good fortunes ended in 1669, however, when it came under the jurisdiction of the Ottoman Empire. This era was a damaging one for the wine industry, and though Crete gained its independence in 1898 (and joined the Greek state in 1913), its wine industry would take decades to recover. Up to and through World War II, Crete’s wine production was predominately bulk wine of middling quality, made by six giant cooperatives. That began to change in the 1950s and 60s, when a handful of large companies moved in and started producing wines of a higher caliber. Still, Cretan wines remained in a somewhat sorry state until the 1990s, when producers operating on a more boutique scale gained traction. Many of these artisan operations were run by growers, who began to realize that the best way to get good wine on the market was to make it themselves. Quality remains uneven, but many exciting wines are being produced on Crete. This new wave of producers is emphasizing indigenous varieties, many of which became endangered after phylloxera swept the island in the 1970s. While blending with international varieties is common, the most promising wines are varietal bottlings of obscure Cretan grapes such as Liatiko, Dafni, Plyto, Vilana, and especially Vidiano. Crete is a long, thin island that measures 159 miles long and 37 miles across at its widest and separates the Aegean Sea from the Libyan Sea. It is extremely mountainous, with the only plains located along the coasts. A large range runs east to west along the length of Crete, dividing the island in two. Its three highest peaks—Psiloritis, Lefka Ori, and Dikti—help block the hot African winds that blow from the south, which gives the two halves of the island very different climates. Viticulture is confined to the more temperate north, with the best sites situated along the higher slopes. But even with the advantages of elevation and exposure, the overall Cretan climate is extremely hot and dry. Variations also run laterally, with cooler temperatures and higher rainfall in the west and more arid conditions in the east. From a soil perspective, the terrain of Crete is far more fertile than in the nearby Cyclades, and tends to feature limestone mixed with clay. A vineyard in Crete The island is divided into four districts; from west to east, they are Hania, Rethymno, Iraklio, and Lasithi. Hania and Iraklio, the most important for viticulture, derive their names from the two largest cities in Crete. Iraklio is the leader both in terms of commerce and viticulture and contains five of Crete’s seven PDOs. It features a complex mountainous topography, as it occupies the area between Mount Psiloritis and Mount Dikti. Hania, the westernmost district, has the highest levels of rainfall and the coolest temperatures; it is also one of the flatter areas, with few vineyards planted above 500 meters (1,640 feet). To its east, the district of Rethymno contains Mount Psiloritis, but is not widely planted. Lasithi in the far east occupies the narrowest section of Crete, and is also the hottest and driest. Though this is the least developed of Crete’s districts, it contains two PDOs: Sitia and Malvasia Sitia. Of all the Iraklion PDOs, Peza is often the most highly regarded. This appellation only allows the production of dry wines: whites from Vilana and reds from a combination of Kotsifali and Mandilaria. At their best, Peza whites are light and crisp, while the reds are darkly colored, fragrant, and spicy. The appellation covers 15 villages and stretches from 300 to 800 meters (985 – 2,625 feet) in elevation. The soils carpeting that span are diverse but tend to be sandier and less fertile at higher elevations. The Archanes PDO only allows for dry red wines with the same varietal composition as Peza. This appellation includes seven villages and occupies a north-facing basin. Its vineyards are planted between 300 and 450 meters (985 – 1,475 feet). The wines are similar to red wine from Peza but tend to be a touch darker and slightly riper in style. In the western end of the Iraklion district, on the northeast slopes of Mount Psiloritis, the Daphnes PDO is committed entirely to Liatiko (both dry and sweet). Most of its vines are planted between 150 and 600 meters (490 – 1,970 feet) in deeper, more clay-rich soils than are found in Iraklion’s other PDO zones. Daphnes has the least established reputation of the PDOs. This is partly because the area was long dominated by co-ops, and partly because the Liatiko grape can be difficult. It is an early-ripening variety that often lacks in color, tannin, and fruit. These deficits are typically compensated for via air-drying, but careful producers such as Douloufakis have been able to coax some interesting red-fruited results for the dry wines. Legally, the dessert styles can be produced through air drying and/or fortification. Those wines crafted with the vin doux naturel process and from select sites may be labeled as grand cru. In 2011, new PDOs Candia and Malvasia Candia were added in Iraklion. Candia , which was the Venetian name for the city of Iraklion, acts as a kind of catch-all for the region, allowing the production of dry whites and reds from a wide range of varieties. The reds must be composed of the typical Cretan combination of Kotsifali (minimum 70%) and Mandilaria, but the white blend is a bit more complex. Legally, it is a blend of a minimum 85% Vilana with Assyrtiko, Athiri, Vidiano, Thrapsathiri, and Liatiko. The Malvasia Candia PDO allows for sweet white wines that can be produced either through the vin doux naturel or vin naturellement doux methods. The list of permitted varieties is subtly different than for the dry Candia whites. Assyrtiko, Athiri, Vidiano, Thrapsathiri may be blended with a combined maximum of 15% Malvasia di Candia Aromatica and Muscat Blanc. Though Malvasia Candia is rarely produced, these appellations are useful in that they enable producers to draw upon a greater range of varieties for their PDO wines. Needless to say, the results are diverse, and dry Candia PDO wines are some of the more exciting to come out of Crete. Both PDOs allow grapes to be sourced from vineyards up to a maximum of 700 meters (2,300 feet). The Lasithi district on the eastern end of the island offers the greatest concentration of limestone in Crete, which helps the wines stay fresh in such hot and dry conditions. Most vineyards lie between 250 and 650 meters (820 – 2,130 feet) in elevation and aspects vary. The PDO of Sitia occupies a broad swath of land and is inclusive of a range of styles, from dry whites and reds to sweet reds made using a variety of methods. White wines must be composed of at least 70% Vilana with Thrapsathiri, while the reds must feature 80% Liatiko with Mandilaria. Dessert wines made in an unfortified style from dried grapes must be composed entirely of Liatiko to claim the PDO. As the addition of Mandilaria brings considerable darkness and fruit to the wine, Sitia’s examples of dry Liatiko are often the most approachable in Crete. The Malvasia Sitia PDO exists only for sweet white wines, made via either the vin doux naturel or vin naturellement doux method, and the legal varietal composition is identical to that of Malvasia Candia. These are the only two Malvasia wines in Greece to actually feature the Malvasia grape, though it plays only a minor role. For both PDOs, vineyards extend from 300 to 750 meters (985 – 2,460 feet). Beyond the PDOs, producers across Crete are experimenting with lesser-known indigenous varieties such as Plyto, which makes high-pitched, lemon-scented wines; Dafni, which produces an intensely herbal white wine; Thrapsathiri, whose wine is broad and peachy; and Romeiko, a light-colored red grape that produces an oxidative wine called Marouvas. Vidiano is arguably the best of Crete’s native whites, and its plantings are on the rise. When well made, it yields complex dry whites that are both rich and bright, and often well-suited to oak aging. International varieties are also prevalent, the most important of which is Syrah, which is regularly blended with a variety of indigenous Cretan stock. Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, Viognier, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Merlot can also be found. Though the district of Hania contains no PDOs, some excellent and forward-looking wines are being produced there. Aside from the usual indigenous suspects, the Manousakis Winery is making great strides with both white and red Rhône varieties, which so far seem to enjoy their new life on Crete. PDOs: Archanes, Candia, Daphnes, Malvasia Candia, Malvasia Sitia, Peza, Sitia Regional PGIs: Crete District PGIs: Chania, Heraklion, Lasithi, Rethymno Area PGIs: Kissamos BACK TO TOP Bibliography Lazarakis, Konstantinos. A Guide to the Wines of Greece. Athens: National Interprofessional Organization of Vine and Wine of Greece, 2016. http://customers.peakad.gr/wines_of_greece/guide/english/mobile/index.html . Lazarakis, Konstantinos. The Wines of Greece. London: Octopus Publishing Group, 2005. Meloni, Giulia, and Johan Swinnen. “Bugs, Tariffs and Colonies: The Political Economy of the Wine Trade 1860 – 1970.” American Association of Wine Economists (October 2016). http://www.wine-economics.org/aawe/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/AAWE_WP206.pdf . Phillips, Rod. 9,000 Years of Wine: A World History. Vancouver: Whitecap Books, 2017. Robinson, Jancis, Julia Harding, and José Vouillamoz. Wine Grapes. New York: HarperCollins, 2012. Wines of Greece. Accessed Winter/Spring 2018. http://www.newwinesofgreece.com . Special thanks to Yiannis Karakasis MW, Stavroula Liapa, and Sofia Perpera. Compiled by GuildSomm Senior Staff Writer Kelli White (June 2018)Preview