00:00 Oh, it's so beautiful here in France. I mean, Italy.
00:07 Hannah, you are in Germany.
00:10 What? Germany? That's right. Germany isn't just a country for beer, it's also a country
00:16 for wine. Germany has some of the best wine in the world. Let me prove it to you. Here's
00:23 everything you need to know about German wine.
00:26 Disclaimer, I used to think that German wine wasn't that great. Growing up in the UK, the
00:33 German wine I drank was pretty sweet and honestly low quality. But my German boyfriend is from
00:40 Germany's wine region and after trying the good stuff, I'm a full convert.
00:46 Riesling is the flagship wine of Germany. Both the climate and the soil are perfect
00:52 for it. In fact, Germany is rather more well known for its white wines than its red. And
00:57 it's the world leader in Riesling and Pinot Blanc cultivation.
01:04 Portugal drinks the most amount of wine per capita in the world, but Germany comes in
01:09 sixth place. Germans drink around 20 litres of wine per year, which is less than their
01:14 beer consumption. Fair enough.
01:18 Germany's wine regions stretch across its middle and south. The 13 distinct regions
01:23 boast over 15,000 vineyards.
01:27 The most important export countries for Germany are the US, Norway, the Netherlands, the UK,
01:38 Poland and China. They especially love the Riesling.
01:42 OK, now I want to find out how wine in Germany is actually drunk and what the regional differences
01:47 are.
01:50 As a Vintner in the Mosel region, Matthias Meyra can tell us all about that.
01:56 So I can show you. It's the easiest way just to pour it. That's the traditional
02:00 falsklaas for Schorle. And Schorle means you do like, you mix water with wine. But there's
02:08 a lot more wine. So there's say one hand wide wine. So you go like that and then you're
02:17 doing one hand wide. But the other direction, that would be one way refreshing, falsk region
02:24 drink for falsk wine festival. Then when you go a little bit apart from the winemaking
02:31 areas, you have the way of doing an apple cider. And that way it's a sparkling cider.
02:36 So usually it could be still, could be sparkling. Some people mix it, they put like Coke in
02:41 it. Number three would be just a regular wine. So you're taking a wine glass, pouring a sip
02:47 of water and then that would be the most sophisticated way of wine drinking, I would say.
02:53 All right, it's vocab time. Here are some words and phrases to make you sound like a
02:57 German wine expert. Weintrauben, the grapes that make the wine. Jahrgang, the period in
03:05 which the grapes are harvested. Edles Tröpfchen, this is a colloquial way of saying that the
03:11 wine is good, but it directly translates to noble droplets.
03:17 For everything else that you need to know about German wine, I'm meeting Ulrike Bohr,
03:21 who runs her winery according to family tradition.
03:25 This Wintner from the Mosel region knows very well what makes Germany's wine culture so
03:30 special.
03:31 In our regions, it's typical that we have small family businesses and all the wine like
03:38 cellars and wineries are located in the small towns and outside you only find the vineyards.
03:45 It's different. If you go to France, you have the chateau in the middle and the wine fields
03:49 around.
03:50 Personally, I always had the feeling growing up in the UK that Riesling was quite sweet,
03:55 but it's definitely not in Germany. So can you tell me why that is?
03:59 Oh, we love Riesling. From history, we produced more sweet wines in Germany because the German
04:08 people 30 years ago, they had the wine after their meal. They drink beer during the meal
04:14 and then they want to sit together and have a nice glass of wine. And then it's nice to
04:19 have a little bit sweeter. So the sweet wine, it's the most exported type of wine. But now
04:28 it changed. So now we have more of the dry and half dry Riesling.
04:34 Okay, I hope I've managed to convince you that German wine is seriously underrated.
04:42 Sure, German beer is great, but German wine needs more recognition. Some of the best wine
04:47 I've ever drunk has been right here in Germany. You need to try it and you also need to come
04:52 and visit the beautiful wine regions.
04:55 [MUSIC PLAYING]
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