i'll be leaving for germany next friday...

as much as i enjoy wine, i'm afraid i'm rather undereducated on german wines. i do not like sweetness in wine preferreing dryer reds and whites. i find reisling to be on the edge of my taste for white.

could someone recommend some of the more full bodied reds and crisper whites from germany: good vintage years would be a big help as well.

thanks in advance...

Where will you be in Germany? If you can take a drive on the weinstrasse, there are many small vineyards that sell from their tasting rooms or even the barn. Adams Mueller is one of our favorites - excellent Reds - not found outside of the Heidelberg area however.

This may draw some boos from others out there, but being primarily a dry red wine drinker myself, I didn't have much luck with German wines. Early on we asked a waiter at a very nice restaurant in Koln if he could recommend a good German red wine and his answer was "There is no such thing". There may be a few, but I wouldn't sweat it.

You're in Europe. Don't be afraid to drink a nice Italian or French wine if you want. After all I've been known to drink California wines when in New York.

With regard to whites, if you want the dry style riesling look for the work "trocken" (which translates, more or less, to "dry&quot on the label. Not to be confused with "trockenbeerenauslese" (meaning "individually selected dried grapes) which is the sweetest of the several types of German white wine, and will be prohibitively expensive in any case. But I would also encourage you to become more familiar with the traditional sweet-style rieslings; the better ones will carry the terms "spatlese" or "auslese" and the sweetness will be balanced by high acidity, which keeps it from becoming cloying.

Hi Sub,

Germany and Austria are famous for their white wines, many of which are quite "fruity" (sweet).

Check out Gewurtztraminer.

Sylvaner from Alsace or Austria.

Riesling from Alsace.

Look for Qualitateswein mit Pradikat on the label of German wines. That's the equivalent of DOCG from Italy.

Germany has a wide selection of international wines. I had my absolutely favorite wine there: it is a Greek wine called "Imiklykos", a not-too-dry, not-too-sweet red that is wonderful! Unfortunately, I have not been able to find it in the U.S. Anyone heard of it?

Ira, Alsace is in France, or at least it was last time I was there.

Hi ek,

It is now. It wasn't always.

I am well aware of that Ira. We are talking here about German wine, not French. (Yes, there are good, dry Alsatian wines (from France) Three reliable producers that come to mind are Louis Sipp, Trimbach and Hugel...all of these will be easy to find in Germany I would think)

But since we are not discussing French wine at the moment, I might add that any Alsatian wine that was produced when Alsace was part of Germany would not likely be one that you would be eager to uncork tonight, or any other night.

As for German dry riesling, one solid name to look for on a label is Dr. Loosen. An excellent name to look for on a label from the Mosel is Prum. These are exported as well.

The label of a top wine will bear the letters, QmP, Qualitatswein mit Pradikat or QbA (too long to write in German) But for a dry wine you also need to look for the word "trocken" which means "dry." As for vintage, I believe that 2003 is terrific.