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Sales of more expensive bottles are booming in the United
States and Britain with a spokesman for the German Wine
Institute declaring, "In America alone German wines
sales were worth more than $140 million last year."
White wine drinkers in the US who have grown bored
with Chardonnay, the country's most widely grown white
grape are opting for high-quality dry and sweet Riesling
wines. Germany produces two-thirds of the world's consumption
in this category.
In Britain, sales of German wines priced at more than
$ 20 a bottle have grown by 125 per cent over the past
two years, with some sold in London restaurants fetching
as much as $1200 a bottle.
The most popular German wines are Rieslings. But there
has been a significant increase in the consumption of
German red and rosé wines, which rose by 74 and
20 per cent respectively in Britain last year. Most
of the red comes from the Pinot Noir grape of which
Germany is the world's third largest producer.
In Germany, the boom has been strongest in the red
wine sector, which accounted for 51 per cent of the
wine market in the first half of this year.
The quiet revolution in German wines has taken place
gradually as vintners have switched from turning out
large quantities of sweeter wines designed for mass
consumption, to producing higher quality, dryer wines
for a select market.
German wine reached its peak in the Victorian era when
it was called "Hock", a reference to the wine
estates of the Hockenheim region. The queen had coined
the phrase: "A glass of hock a day keeps the doctor
away."
Most of the country's wine growers now invested in
high quality grapes which produced superior wines. "We
are no longer interested in mass production. We did
that in the seventies and bitterly regretted it,"
says a producer.
In India, the German white wines-especially Riesling
are getting more popular. Every importer of cosmopolitan
vision either has or is planning to add them to his
portfolio. Premium producers like Egon Mueller, Dr.
Loosen, Gunderloch, Bürklin Wolf are already present.
Deinhard and Henkell Trocken are also a couple out of
several producers making quaffable wines.
While it will be a while before Pinot Noir can hoist
the flag, Dornfelder is expected to make inroads, being
a lower cost red wine.
Off dry Riesling pairs very well with the spicy Indian
food, while the light and fruity dry version is excellent
as an aperitif. Once popular Blue Nun also made an entry
with much fanfare and an assumption that Indians would
love the sweet plonk- a decision that did not get them
many votes and the brand fell on the wayside.
Source: http://news.independent.co.uk
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