HISTORY OF GERMAN WINES
Germany produces some of the world’s most underrated wines: on the steep slate and shale banks along the Mosel, the pristine, castle-crowned vineyards of the Rheingau and the rolling hills of Rheinhessen.
Germany has a history of winemaking that dates back to 100 B.C. when ancient Romans, who conquered the region, began producing wines on local soil. They recognized the potential of sites like the Piesporter Goldtröpfchen and started to cultivate grapes there. Researchers have found a wine press in Piesport that dates back to 400 A.D., making it the largest Roman wine press ever found north of the Alps.
During the middle Ages, monks upheld the tradition of making wine and cultivated the vineyards that are famous today.

In 1845, Queen Victoria of England visited the Rheingau, where she discovered her love for German Riesling and coined the term “Hock”, which is synonymous with German Riesling in Britain today, but originally referred to Riesling from the Rhine community of Hochheim.
Germany’s wine production lost its luster in the 1960s and 70s, when large quantities of sweet blended wines were created for export, among them the infamous Liebfraumilch and Blue Nun. While Germany continued to make and drink high quality wines (most Germans have never heard of either brand), sweet non-descript wines became synonymous with German wines internationally.
An increasing number of high quality German wines are now finding their way across the Atlantic, such as High Def and Von Schleinitz from Mosel region, recapturing the reputation they once possessed internationally.

The Mosel-Saar-Ruwer region
MSR is arguably the most important top quality Riesling region in the world currently. Lower predicates produce light, yet brilliantly perfumed, aromatic, and long lived wines, showing their best when the high acidity is balanced by a touch of sweetness. Fully dry wines can be good - even stunning, but all too often are harsh and thin tasting. The rare dessert wines can reach the sublime, ranking firmly among the greatest wines money can buy.
In the words of Frank Schoonmaker: "At their best the wines of that whole region have honeyed fragrance like a bunch of spring flowers, a lightness and fruity acidity that makes them unique. (...) They are the lightest of the great wines of the world, hardly ever exceeding ten percent of alcohol by volume."