The Wines of Germany (Classic Wine Library) [Paperback]

Stephen Brook (Author)

Book Description

Series: Classic Wine Library | Publication Date: July 28, 2006

Records of German wine shipments date back to the early 13th century—and yet, despite the fact that Germany’s wines are rich in history and renown, a large proportion of the wine-drinking public still looks down upon them. Multi-award-winning author Stephen Brook addresses the strange and complex question of why this has been so, focusing in on some controversial German wine laws and issues such as vineyard classification. In addition, he guides wine lovers to the top vintages and producers and the best vineyard sites, and discusses a wide range of grape varieties and lesser-known wine styles.  

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Stephen Brook is a leading writer on wine, gastronomy, and travel. His previous book in this series Wines of California won the Glenfiddich, Prix Lanson, and Veuve Clicquot awards for best wine book 2000. He is also the author of Pauillac which won the Andre Simon award in 1999 and Bordeaux: People, Power and Politics which won the Veuve Cliquot and ICP awards in 2002, and is the general editor of A Century of Wine (all published by Mitchell Beazley). He lives in London.

Product Details

• Paperback: 464 pages
• Publisher: MITCH (July 28, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1840007915
• ISBN-13: 978-1840007916
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.4 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #233,754 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #12 in Books > Cookbooks, Food & Wine > Regional & International > European > German
  • #44 in Books > Cookbooks, Food & Wine > Drinks & Beverages > Wine > Buying Guides

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

28 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Opinionated. Enlightening. And always entertaining., May 2, 2004

By 

Esther Schindler (Scottsdale, AZ USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Wines of Germany (Classic Wine Library) (Paperback)

First, you should know that I'm far from a wine expert. I'm working hard to get past the "I just know I like this one" stage, reaching towards the state of "somewhat knowledgeable." Books like this are helping me achieve that goal, however.

The Wines of Germany is essentially organized in two parts. The first five chapters give an overview of the unique issues of the German wine landscape, covering the wine law of Germany; vineyard classification; German wine styles; going to market; and the German grape varieties.

The rest of the book is devoted to wines from each region, covering both the obvious regions (such as Rheingau and Nahe) and the regions that other dismiss in a few paragraphs (such as Sachsen and Saale-Unstrut). In each of those chapters, he begins with an overview that discusses everything from the hectares devoted to winemaking ("The Rheingau has about 3,200 ha of vines, grown by 1,500 owners") to the geology to wine-growing history to the current market conditions. For each region, Brook discusses both individual vineyards and the producers. In other words, you can look up a wine by the village it comes from, and by a particular winery. (Some wineries, after all, have vines in more than one area.) Oh -- and there are excellent maps.

That sounds EVER so dry, but gosh -- it really isn't. What Brook does amazingly well is both explain what the issue is (such as the 1971 wine law), what it means to the winemakers and thus to the consumer, and how it'll affect the wines you buy (and their cost). Nor does he shy away from the politicial issues.I finally understand why the German wine labels are so confusing, for example, and why it took an entire chapter to make it understandable!

He's also immensely entertaining, and extremely opinionated, both about the wines and their producers, and the larger issues surrounding them. For example, he says, "Baden wines and Baden wine marketing are, in short, a bit of a mess. No one is particularly motivated to sort it out. Individualist growers simply go their own way and trust in the quality of their wines to secure a share of the market."

But what about the wine ratings? After all, that's probably why you're considering buying this book. He gives great, pages-long coverage to the most visible of the wineries, the ones most likely to be imported to the U.S. (such as Prum and Dr Loosen), but don't expect a bottle-by-bottle rating. For instance, he says of Dr Loosen, "...the Wehlener Sonnenuhr is invariably racy and zesty and delicate, as it should be, whereas the Urziger Wurzgarten is more spicy..." He does mention vintages, but usually in regard to the region rather than an individual producer. But if you want to compare his opinion to yours, for a bottle you just brought home from the store, you may be disappointed; several sites and wineries get only a paragraph or so. On the other hand, with a book this complete, at least you can be reasonably sure that your bottle, no matter how obscure, will be mentioned.

What you *won't* find here is any kind of travel guide for visiting wineries. If that's any part of your goal, you'll also want to pick up a copy of A Traveller's Wine Guide to Germany. (I suppose it's dated, now, but it's far better as a tool for exploring the wine regions.)

Overall, I've found this the best book on German wines around. Well worth the money.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great book, could use better maps., December 3, 2006

By 

N. Zhu (Florida) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Wines of Germany (Classic Wine Library) (Paperback)

German wines are hugely underrated, even if they've enjoyed something of a renaissance in the last several years. Stephen Brook has written an excellent book on the subject, striking a good balance between detail on individual producers and giving an overview of trends and challenges in the field of German wine. I don't necessarily agree with all of his judgments (for example I think he underrates Weingart, now the top producer in the Mittelrhein), but for the most part he's spot-on. His discussions of the problems posed by the German wine law and the efforts at creating a system of classification are interesting and relevant.

The only reason I rated this book four rather than five stars is the poor quality of the maps. Of course I didn't expect that they would be as detailed or informative as those in Johnson's atlas (which unfortunately omits several important regions of Germany), but the maps in here are pretty embarrassing. It might have been better to not include them at all. The more recently published book in this series on Austria (an update of an earlier work) has much better maps. But that's a minor quibble about what is otherwise a very well-written and much needed book.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Most Comprehensive German Wine Text in English, March 7, 2008

By 

Christopher Barrett (Portland, Oregon) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Wines of Germany (Classic Wine Library) (Paperback)

This text is meant to be an in-depth addition to the popular library of wine texts and atlases published. I admit that I had a great weakness in the labeling of German wine, mainly a breakdown of the various communes, grosslage, and bereiche. This text helped to explain quite a bit of these confusing topics as well as touching on the classic, selection, charta, VDP, erstes gewachs, and erste lage classifications which other texts fail to do. Also, the list of the grapes is particularly interesting since it lists current amount planted. The producer bios are also very helpful.

This is a book that should be paired with the World Atlas of Wine or another wine atlas. Best used for those in the industry who wish to learn more about German wine.

Pros: producer bios, well written and engaging, packed with information, immerses reader with info without drowning, not filled with useless pictures, explains what other books never do.
Cons: maps are rather plain and uninformative, could have used more information on VDP.