German Wine: Regions, Grapes and How to Read the Label

German wine comes from 13 official wine regions, and it is best known for Riesling. The short answer for shoppers: German wine is not all sweet, the grape and the word trocken (dry) tell you most of what you need, and words like Kabinett or Spätlese describe how ripe the grapes were, not a fixed sweetness. This guide covers the regions, the grapes and the label terms, so you can pick a bottle with confidence.

Germany by the numbers

The German Wine Institute (Deutsches Weininstitut, the industry’s official promotion body) publishes yearly statistics based on federal data. Its 2024/2025 edition gives these figures for 2023:

• Vineyard area: 103,687 hectares (about 256,216 acres).
• White vs red: 68.8% white grapes and 31.2% red.
• Harvest: about 8.7 million hectoliters of grape must in 2023, 3% below the ten-year average.
• Style: of the wine that went through official quality testing in 2023, 3,595,000 of 6,987,000 hectoliters were dry, or just over half. Off-dry (halbtrocken) made up about a fifth and sweeter styles the rest.
• Exports: the US was the largest export market by value in 2023, taking 12.1% of German wine exports.

In our view, that dry majority is the most useful number on this page. Many Americans still think of German wine as sweet, and that hasn’t matched what Germany makes for years.

The 13 German wine regions

Germany’s wine regions are called Anbaugebiete. The German Wine Institute’s table below shows each region’s vineyard area in 2023 and its main grape:

Region	Vineyard area, 2023	Main grapes (share of the region)
Rheinhessen	27,499 ha	Riesling (19.6%), Müller-Thurgau, Dornfelder
Pfalz	23,793 ha	Riesling (25.2%), Dornfelder, Grauburgunder
Baden	15,727 ha	Spätburgunder (32.1%), Grauburgunder, Müller-Thurgau
Württemberg	11,392 ha	Riesling, Trollinger, Lemberger (64% red grapes)
Mosel	8,536 ha	Riesling (62.4%), Müller-Thurgau, Elbling
Franken	6,173 ha	Silvaner (25.3%), Müller-Thurgau, Bacchus
Nahe	4,249 ha	Riesling (29.3%), Müller-Thurgau
Rheingau	3,207 ha	Riesling (76.1%), Spätburgunder
Saale-Unstrut	853 ha	Müller-Thurgau, Weissburgunder
Ahr	531 ha	Spätburgunder (79% red grapes)
Sachsen	522 ha	Riesling, Müller-Thurgau
Hessische Bergstraße	461 ha	Riesling
Mittelrhein	460 ha	Riesling (63.3%)

Mosel

Wines of Germany calls the Mosel the country’s oldest wine region, with Roman wine presses as evidence. The Mosel river winds for nearly 250 km, and the Saar and Ruwer join it. Half of the vineyards sit on steep or terraced sites with slopes over 30 degrees, often on Devonian slate. The region’s page puts its Riesling plantings at 5,156 hectares. Wine Folly counts the Mosel among the sources of some of the world’s top Rieslings. We’d start here for light, low-alcohol Riesling.

Rheingau

The Rheingau is small but famous. According to Wines of Germany, it has the highest share of Riesling of any German region, and Spätburgunder (Pinot Noir) grows on about 390 hectares, best known around Assmannshausen. The forested Taunus hills shelter the vines from cold winds. The site calls Johannisberg the birthplace of Spätlese and says Auslese has been made there since 1775.

Rheinhessen and Pfalz

These are Germany’s two largest regions, with more than 51,000 hectares of vines between them in 2023. Both have Riesling as their leading grape, alongside Müller-Thurgau and Dornfelder in Rheinhessen and Dornfelder and Grauburgunder (Pinot Gris) in the Pfalz. Wine Folly points to the Pfalz, with the Rheingau, for good Sekt, Germany’s sparkling wine.

Baden, the Ahr and Württemberg: red wine country

Baden, in the warm south, is the one big region where a red grape leads: Spätburgunder covers almost a third of its vineyards. The tiny Ahr is mostly red, and Wine Folly singles it out for exceptional Pinot Noir. Württemberg is the only region with more red grapes than white, led by Trollinger and Lemberger.

Franken and Nahe

Franken is Silvaner country, and Wine Folly notes the wines often come in the squat, round Bocksbeutel bottle. The Nahe is led by Riesling, with Müller-Thurgau second.

Germany’s main grapes

Grape	Area, 2023	Share of vineyards	What to know
Riesling	24,388 ha	23.5%	Germany’s signature white, dry to very sweet
Spätburgunder (Pinot Noir)	11,519 ha	11.1%	The leading red
Müller-Thurgau	10,738 ha	10.4%	Light, everyday whites
Grauburgunder (Pinot Gris)	8,372 ha	8.1%	Fuller whites, often from Baden and the Pfalz
Dornfelder	6,618 ha	6.4%	Deep-colored, fruity red
Weissburgunder (Pinot Blanc)	6,318 ha	6.1%	Fresh, softer white
Silvaner	4,330 ha	4.2%	Franken’s grape

Figures are from the German Wine Institute’s statistics. Wine Folly calls Germany the world’s top Riesling producer. Our Pinot Blanc guide covers Weissburgunder in more depth.

Wine Folly lists honeydew melon, white peach and lime among the notes of dry German Riesling, and sweeter Prädikat Riesling with apricot, lime and honey. For German Spätburgunder, it describes sweet fruit flavors set against subtle earthy and leafy notes. Wine Folly also flags Silvaner as a frequent bargain.

How to read a German wine label

A German label usually tells you four things: the grape, the place, the quality level and the sweetness. Our general guide to how to read a wine label covers the rest.

Quality levels: Qualitätswein and Prädikatswein

German quality wine is labeled either Qualitätswein (quality wine) or Prädikatswein (quality wine with a ripeness level). In 2023, 94% of the wine that passed quality testing was Qualitätswein, and Prädikat wines made up the rest, according to the German Wine Institute. Wines of Germany explains that every Qualität and Prädikat wine is lab-tested and tasted blind by an official panel, and gets an official approval number that must appear on the label.

One difference matters: Qualitätswein may have a limited amount of sugar added before fermentation, but Prädikat wines may not be enriched.

The six Prädikat levels

The Prädikat levels rank wines by the ripeness of the grapes at harvest. Each has a minimum must weight (grape sugar) that varies by grape and region. The descriptions below follow Wines of Germany:

Prädikat	What it means	Typical style
Kabinett	Fine, light wines from ripe grapes, low in alcohol	Light; often lightly sweet unless marked trocken
Spätlese	Riper grapes picked a little later	Riper and fruitier; not necessarily sweet
Auslese	Fully ripe grapes, with unripe berries sorted out	Intense; often but not always sweet
Beerenauslese (BA)	Individually selected overripe berries, usually with noble rot	Rich dessert wine
Eiswein	Grapes as ripe as BA, picked at -7 °C (19.4 °F) or colder and pressed while frozen	Very sweet, high acidity
Trockenbeerenauslese (TBA)	Shriveled, noble-rot berries; not possible every year	Extremely rich and sweet

The “trocken” in Trockenbeerenauslese refers to the dried berries, not to a dry wine. For how Eiswein compares with Canadian icewine, see our ice wine guide.

Sweetness terms

These are the legal limits as Wines of Germany sets them out:

Term	Meaning	Residual sugar
Trocken	Dry	Up to 4 g/L, or up to 9 g/L if acidity is no more than 2 g/L lower than the sugar
Halbtrocken	Off-dry	Up to 12 g/L, or up to 18 g/L if sugar exceeds acidity by no more than 10 g/L
Lieblich	Medium sweet	Above off-dry, up to 45 g/L
Süß	Sweet	45 g/L and above
Feinherb	Off-dry (unofficial)	Not regulated; usually between halbtrocken and sweet

Tip: Alcohol is a handy clue. A German Riesling at around 8% to 10% alcohol usually has some sweetness left in it, and Wine Folly notes that higher alcohol often points to a drier style.

The origin pyramid, VDP and GG

Since 2021, German law has used an origin pyramid in which, as Wines of Germany puts it, the smaller the origin, the higher the quality:

1. Single-vineyard wines (Lage). The top tier includes Grosses Gewächs (GG): hand-picked grapes, a yield of no more than 50 hectoliters per hectare, at least 12% natural potential alcohol, and always dry. Erstes Gewächs (EG) is the next step, also dry only.
2. Village wines (Ortswein), named after a village, from grapes at least as ripe as Kabinett.
3. Region wines, from a part of a region or a Grosslage (a large site spanning several villages), with the word “Region” before the name.
4. Winegrowing area wines, the base level, named only for one of the 13 regions.

You’ll also see the eagle logo of the VDP (Verband Deutscher Prädikatsweingüter), an association of leading estates with its own four-step classification: VDP.Gutswein, VDP.Ortswein, VDP.Erste Lage and VDP.Grosse Lage. The VDP says dry wines from its Grosse Lage sites are called VDP.Grosses Gewächs and carry a GG logo, while its sweeter wines keep the classic Prädikat names. In our view, a VDP Gutswein or Ortswein from a good estate is one of the best-value ways into German wine.

Food pairing

German wine’s high acidity and moderate alcohol make it flexible at the table. These are our suggestions:

Food	German wine	Why it works
Thai, Sichuan or Indian dishes	Riesling Kabinett or feinherb	A little sweetness and low alcohol calm spicy heat
Pork chops, sausages, schnitzel	Dry Riesling or Silvaner	Acidity cuts through fat
Roast chicken or salmon	Weissburgunder or Grauburgunder	Rounder whites match richer dishes
Duck, mushrooms, game birds	Spätburgunder	Light red with enough acidity for rich meat
Blue cheese, fruit tarts	Auslese or Beerenauslese	Dessert wine should be sweeter than the dessert

For more ideas, see our guide to white wine types.

Good-value German wine

We don’t name specific bottles on this page. Our value picks follow our rating method, with a published critic score for a named vintage and a US price checked at two or more stores.

What to look for meanwhile: a Riesling or Silvaner from a known estate at Qualitätswein or Kabinett level is usually the sweet spot for price. Our pick for a first bottle is a Mosel Riesling Kabinett, because it shows what makes German Riesling different from any other. If you prefer dry wine, look for “trocken” or a VDP Gutswein. More regions to compare are in our guide to the wine regions of the world.

How to serve German wine

These are our suggestions:

• Whites: we’d chill Riesling, Silvaner and the Pinot whites as you would any crisp white, and let fuller dry wines such as GGs warm a little in the glass.
• Reds: we’d serve Spätburgunder slightly cool, which suits a light red.
• Sweet wines: BA, TBA and Eiswein are rich, so small, well-chilled pours go a long way.