Germany has a rich cultural heritage. Before the late 19th century, Germany was a collection of individual fiefdoms and regions. This history is reflected in the country's cultural diversity.
Why Should I Learn About German Culture?
The reasons for learning about German culture and German life are the same as for learning the culture of any language group. Learning German language and culture is useful to:
• broaden personal knowledge
• increase career prospects
Learning about German culture is also essential for those who travel to Germany on business. There are many courses designed to help business people learn cultural customs and language • relating doing business in Germany. meetings
• negotiations and deals
• telephone conversations
• travel vocabulary
• money and banking
• the business environment
How Can I Learn About German Culture?
One of the best ways to learn about German culture is to travel in Germany. Study in Germany allows students to appreciate German culture from the inside. Not only will people learn the German language from native speakers, but they will have the chance to share social and cultural events with native speakers of German. This is an excellent method of learning about German culture and language.
What Do Courses In German Culture Cover?
Courses in German culture will cover areas such as history, geography, music, dance, literature and the arts in general. Other aspects of German culture include food and drink. Studying German culture is a key aspect of learning German, as language and culture go hand in hand.
Other Options For Learning German Culture
Another way of learning about German culture is to take part in an exchange program. This makes it easy to learn everyday language for daily communication and provides an inside view of German culture. Some students taking German in other countries find this a useful addition to their language courses. Those students may choose to teach their native language in return for the chance to live in and travel through Germany.
Once you have learned about German language and culture, you'll be ready to travel not just in Germany but in countries such as Austria, Switzerland, and parts of the US and South America where German is still spoken.
A. I Love German Wine and Food - Launching a Series
This article will launch our new series, I Love German Wine and Food. You may be aware that we have written more than two dozen articles in our first series, I Love Italian Wine and Food. This series will continue this labor of love, but for German wine and food.
Let’s start with a few statistics about German wine. In spite of the fact that Germany has a small wine acreage, only half that of the Bordeaux region of France, Germany is the world’s seventh largest wine exporter. Germans drink about five times as much beer as wine, and perhaps surprisingly drink more red wine than white wine. Germany produces about two thirds of the world’s Riesling wine, including much of the finest.
We are going to look at thirteen wine German regions,in alphabetical order they are: Ahr, Baden, Franken, Hessische Bergstrasse, Mittelrhein, Mosel, Nahe, Pfalz, Rheingau, Rheinhessen, Saale-Unstrut, Sachsen, and Württemberg. We’ll talk about the wines and the foods that characterize the region. We are keeping our eyes open for wines from all regions of Germany. In general, the articles in this series (except for the present one) will include our unbiased tasting report on a wine. We will taste the wine with food, including several main courses and at least one imported cheese, German if possible. In our Italian series the wines that we tasted varied in cost from $6 to $38, but were mostly in the range of $10 to $20. We intend to apply approximately the same price range for the German wines, but don’t be surprised if the price range drifts somewhat upwards.
Our wine tasting will be flexible with respect to regions, prices, and wine styles. First rule, all wines that we taste and review have been purchased at the full retail price. Second rule, if we are unhappy with a wine, we will let you know. Now back to the subject of German wines.
Wine Classification.
German wine classifications are complicated. To a large extent they are based on the wine’s sugar content. Wein simply means wine, a wine made from a blend of grapes grown outside the European Union. Tafelwein means table wine; it may be blended from grapes grown in different European Union countries or a wine made in one EU country from grapes harvested in another EU country. Deutscher Tafelwein means German table wine. This category and the following one, Landwein, now represent less than 2% of the total German wine production. Since we are tasting a Deutscher Tafelwein, we probably won’t bother to taste a Landwein unless the Deutscher Tafelwein pleasantly surprises us. That’s one of the things we love about tasting wine, while we do have preconceived notions, we can’t be sure until we actually try the wine. And now for the higher level classifications.
Qualitätswein Bestimmter Anbaugebiet (QBA) means a quality wine from one of the thirteen specified wine regions. About one third of German wine is QBA wine, a percentage that is rapidly declining. Its grapes usually have not fully ripened and so these wines allow the addition of sugar during fermentation, a process known as chaptalization. By law, QBA wines have a minimum alcohol content of 5.9%, less than half the alcohol in most of the Italian wines we reviewed. Such a low alcohol content leads to poor shelf life.
Qualitätswein Garantierten Ursprungs (QGU) means a QBA wine with a well-defined taste. It is harder to obtain the QGU designation than the QBA designation. Qualitätswein mit Prädikat (QMP) means assured quality wine. About two thirds of German wine is QMP wine, a percentage that is rapidly increasing. This important classification is subdivided into six classifications described below. Unlike QBA wines, the presumably higher quality QMP wines may not be chaptalized. In order to understand the following classifications within the umbrella QMP classification, we have to discuss the Oechsle scale. The Oechsle value effectively measures a wine’s sugar content which depends on its specific gravity (weight relative to pure water). Pure water is given the value 1000. Kabinett QMP wines were first defined in the early 1700s. Their minimum Oechsle value varies from 67° to 85° depending on the grape variety and where the grapes were grown. Kabinett wines are made from grapes that haven’t fully ripened. Kabinett wines are usually not very sweet.
Spätlese QMP literally means a wine made from late-harvested grapes. In real terms Spätlese wines are made from ripe grapes. Their minimum Oechsle value varies from 76° to 95° with a potential alcohol content of 10% to 13%. While 10% alcohol is a low value compared to most non-German wines, 13% alcohol is a common value. Spätlese wines tend to be sweet with harmonious acidity.
Auslese QMP wine is truly a late harvest wine. It is made from grape bunches left on the vine after the Spätlese wine grapes have been harvested. Auslese grapes must be free of damage and disease, and yet the wine laws permit machine harvesting. Their minimum Oechsle value varies from 83° to 105°, giving them a potential alcohol content of 11.1% to 14.5%. Many producers make Auslese wines only in special vintages. These wines tend to be complex. Beerenauslese QMP is a sweet, botryised wine made from shriveled, individually selected grapes. Their minimum Oechsle value varies from 110° to 128°, giving them a potential alcohol content of 15.3% to 18.1%. The minimum required alcohol content is 5.5%. The lower the alcohol level, the higher the sugar level. These wines are very sweet and quite complex.
The frozen grapes must be pressed before they defrost. If everything goes right the final product is spectacular, among Germany’s finest sweet wines. Their minimum Oechsle value varies from 110° to 128°, giving them a potential alcohol content of 15.3% to 18.1%. In fact many Eisweins are similar in Oechsle value to Trockenbeerenauslese wines described next, but have a very different flavor profile.
Trockenbeerenauslese QMP, abbreviated as TBA, wines are produced from botrysized, shriveled grapes, individually picked from the vine. The minimum required alcohol content is 5.5%. These wines are very dark and so thick and syrupy that they must be sipped.
We will try to taste at least one wine from as many of the thirteen wine regions as possible.
B. I Love German Wine and Food - A Deutscher Tafelwein
You may remember that German wine classifications are quite complicated. To a large extent a wine’s classification is based on it’s sugar content. Suffice it to say that the lowest level German wine is table wine (actually an even lower level is described in our article I Love German Wine and Food – Launching a Series, but we promised not to mention it again and we intend to keep our word.) Deutscher Tafel Wine (German table wine) comes in slightly better than table wine. Originally we had no intention of reviewing these plebian wines, but when we saw one for sale in a local wine store we figured why not give it a chance. In the world of wine, as elsewhere, pleasant surprises can happen. Before reviewing this wine let’s recall some details of German wine classification and then talk a bit about Deutscher Tafelwein in general.
Landwein is a Deutscher Tafelwein from a specific area. Qualitätswein Bestimmter Anbaugebiet (QbA) means a quality wine from one of the thirteen specified German wine regions. About one third of German wine is QbA wine, a percentage that is rapidly declining. Qualitätswein mit Prädikat (QmP) means assured quality wine. About two thirds of German wine is QmP wine, a percentage that is rapidly increasing. QmP wines may not be chaptalized and must come from a well-defined area. These wines are divided into six subcategories, described in the Launching… article. Of the thirteen German wine regions only the two biggest, Rheinhessen and Pfalz, devote more than 10% of their wine production to table wine. Of course, when you talk about German table wine, you’re talking about Germany and not a specific region. So much for generalities, let’s see how the Deutscher Tafelwein actually turned out.
OUR WINE REVIEW POLICY All wines that we taste and review are purchased at the full retail price.
Wine Reviewed
Schmitt Winzertanz 9% alcohol about $8 (1 liter bottle) No vintage year
Let’s start with the marketing materials, which are a lot shorter than usual. Light straw color; apple, pear, and citrus aroma, off-dry peach flavor, medium body and finish. Serving suggestion, serve lightly chilled with pork chops and apple sauce. I’m not really pleased that the label mentions no vintage year. Anyway, this bottle has a cute label with peasants dancing near wine barrels. The first pairing was with a commercial shepherd’s pie, perked up a bit with Thai Chili Sauce. The wine was quite pleasant, even if short and not complex. It was a bit sweet. I didn’t taste everything that was promised me, but broken wine promises are not restricted to low-priced offerings. The wine went well with dry, thin biscuits containing slices of almonds and pistachios.
I next paired this wine with cold salmon filet accompanied by a red (surely because of ketchup) mayonnaise sauce and pearl onions, and a tomato, cucumber, and red onion salad. The wine retained its fruit and was moderately long, but a bit thin, I don’t really recommend this Deutscher Tafelwein with such a high quality salmon dish, but it wasn’t bad, especially for the price. In the presence of a nut chocolate cake the wine was refreshingly acidic.
The wine was appley and had a moderate length. I guess it is what you call a quaffing wine.
The final meal consisted of fried chicken breast strips, accompanied by green beans and rice. In this case the wine was fairly weak.
The Winzertanz was pleasant with a ripe French camembert cheese, handling it better than some of the more expensive wines that also accompanied this cheese. After I paired the wine with four meat dishes and two cheeses the bottle was still more than a third full. I don’t plan on finishing the bottle; I want to move on to other wines. But frankly, in some of my tastings the Winzertanz did a lot better than another, much more expensive wine. If I’m with a bunch of people who don’t want to spend a lot on wine and we are ordering simple food, I’ll be glad to drink this wine.
Why Should I Learn About German Culture?
The reasons for learning about German culture and German life are the same as for learning the culture of any language group. Learning German language and culture is useful to:
• broaden personal knowledge
• increase career prospects
Learning about German culture is also essential for those who travel to Germany on business. There are many courses designed to help business people learn cultural customs and language • relating doing business in Germany. meetings
• negotiations and deals
• telephone conversations
• travel vocabulary
• money and banking
• the business environment
How Can I Learn About German Culture?
One of the best ways to learn about German culture is to travel in Germany. Study in Germany allows students to appreciate German culture from the inside. Not only will people learn the German language from native speakers, but they will have the chance to share social and cultural events with native speakers of German. This is an excellent method of learning about German culture and language.
What Do Courses In German Culture Cover?
Courses in German culture will cover areas such as history, geography, music, dance, literature and the arts in general. Other aspects of German culture include food and drink. Studying German culture is a key aspect of learning German, as language and culture go hand in hand.
Other Options For Learning German Culture
Another way of learning about German culture is to take part in an exchange program. This makes it easy to learn everyday language for daily communication and provides an inside view of German culture. Some students taking German in other countries find this a useful addition to their language courses. Those students may choose to teach their native language in return for the chance to live in and travel through Germany.
Once you have learned about German language and culture, you'll be ready to travel not just in Germany but in countries such as Austria, Switzerland, and parts of the US and South America where German is still spoken.
A. I Love German Wine and Food - Launching a Series
This article will launch our new series, I Love German Wine and Food. You may be aware that we have written more than two dozen articles in our first series, I Love Italian Wine and Food. This series will continue this labor of love, but for German wine and food.
Let’s start with a few statistics about German wine. In spite of the fact that Germany has a small wine acreage, only half that of the Bordeaux region of France, Germany is the world’s seventh largest wine exporter. Germans drink about five times as much beer as wine, and perhaps surprisingly drink more red wine than white wine. Germany produces about two thirds of the world’s Riesling wine, including much of the finest.
We are going to look at thirteen wine German regions,in alphabetical order they are: Ahr, Baden, Franken, Hessische Bergstrasse, Mittelrhein, Mosel, Nahe, Pfalz, Rheingau, Rheinhessen, Saale-Unstrut, Sachsen, and Württemberg. We’ll talk about the wines and the foods that characterize the region. We are keeping our eyes open for wines from all regions of Germany. In general, the articles in this series (except for the present one) will include our unbiased tasting report on a wine. We will taste the wine with food, including several main courses and at least one imported cheese, German if possible. In our Italian series the wines that we tasted varied in cost from $6 to $38, but were mostly in the range of $10 to $20. We intend to apply approximately the same price range for the German wines, but don’t be surprised if the price range drifts somewhat upwards.
Our wine tasting will be flexible with respect to regions, prices, and wine styles. First rule, all wines that we taste and review have been purchased at the full retail price. Second rule, if we are unhappy with a wine, we will let you know. Now back to the subject of German wines.
Wine Classification.
German wine classifications are complicated. To a large extent they are based on the wine’s sugar content. Wein simply means wine, a wine made from a blend of grapes grown outside the European Union. Tafelwein means table wine; it may be blended from grapes grown in different European Union countries or a wine made in one EU country from grapes harvested in another EU country. Deutscher Tafelwein means German table wine. This category and the following one, Landwein, now represent less than 2% of the total German wine production. Since we are tasting a Deutscher Tafelwein, we probably won’t bother to taste a Landwein unless the Deutscher Tafelwein pleasantly surprises us. That’s one of the things we love about tasting wine, while we do have preconceived notions, we can’t be sure until we actually try the wine. And now for the higher level classifications.
Qualitätswein Bestimmter Anbaugebiet (QBA) means a quality wine from one of the thirteen specified wine regions. About one third of German wine is QBA wine, a percentage that is rapidly declining. Its grapes usually have not fully ripened and so these wines allow the addition of sugar during fermentation, a process known as chaptalization. By law, QBA wines have a minimum alcohol content of 5.9%, less than half the alcohol in most of the Italian wines we reviewed. Such a low alcohol content leads to poor shelf life.
Qualitätswein Garantierten Ursprungs (QGU) means a QBA wine with a well-defined taste. It is harder to obtain the QGU designation than the QBA designation. Qualitätswein mit Prädikat (QMP) means assured quality wine. About two thirds of German wine is QMP wine, a percentage that is rapidly increasing. This important classification is subdivided into six classifications described below. Unlike QBA wines, the presumably higher quality QMP wines may not be chaptalized. In order to understand the following classifications within the umbrella QMP classification, we have to discuss the Oechsle scale. The Oechsle value effectively measures a wine’s sugar content which depends on its specific gravity (weight relative to pure water). Pure water is given the value 1000. Kabinett QMP wines were first defined in the early 1700s. Their minimum Oechsle value varies from 67° to 85° depending on the grape variety and where the grapes were grown. Kabinett wines are made from grapes that haven’t fully ripened. Kabinett wines are usually not very sweet.
Spätlese QMP literally means a wine made from late-harvested grapes. In real terms Spätlese wines are made from ripe grapes. Their minimum Oechsle value varies from 76° to 95° with a potential alcohol content of 10% to 13%. While 10% alcohol is a low value compared to most non-German wines, 13% alcohol is a common value. Spätlese wines tend to be sweet with harmonious acidity.
Auslese QMP wine is truly a late harvest wine. It is made from grape bunches left on the vine after the Spätlese wine grapes have been harvested. Auslese grapes must be free of damage and disease, and yet the wine laws permit machine harvesting. Their minimum Oechsle value varies from 83° to 105°, giving them a potential alcohol content of 11.1% to 14.5%. Many producers make Auslese wines only in special vintages. These wines tend to be complex. Beerenauslese QMP is a sweet, botryised wine made from shriveled, individually selected grapes. Their minimum Oechsle value varies from 110° to 128°, giving them a potential alcohol content of 15.3% to 18.1%. The minimum required alcohol content is 5.5%. The lower the alcohol level, the higher the sugar level. These wines are very sweet and quite complex.
The frozen grapes must be pressed before they defrost. If everything goes right the final product is spectacular, among Germany’s finest sweet wines. Their minimum Oechsle value varies from 110° to 128°, giving them a potential alcohol content of 15.3% to 18.1%. In fact many Eisweins are similar in Oechsle value to Trockenbeerenauslese wines described next, but have a very different flavor profile.
Trockenbeerenauslese QMP, abbreviated as TBA, wines are produced from botrysized, shriveled grapes, individually picked from the vine. The minimum required alcohol content is 5.5%. These wines are very dark and so thick and syrupy that they must be sipped.
We will try to taste at least one wine from as many of the thirteen wine regions as possible.
B. I Love German Wine and Food - A Deutscher Tafelwein
You may remember that German wine classifications are quite complicated. To a large extent a wine’s classification is based on it’s sugar content. Suffice it to say that the lowest level German wine is table wine (actually an even lower level is described in our article I Love German Wine and Food – Launching a Series, but we promised not to mention it again and we intend to keep our word.) Deutscher Tafel Wine (German table wine) comes in slightly better than table wine. Originally we had no intention of reviewing these plebian wines, but when we saw one for sale in a local wine store we figured why not give it a chance. In the world of wine, as elsewhere, pleasant surprises can happen. Before reviewing this wine let’s recall some details of German wine classification and then talk a bit about Deutscher Tafelwein in general.
Landwein is a Deutscher Tafelwein from a specific area. Qualitätswein Bestimmter Anbaugebiet (QbA) means a quality wine from one of the thirteen specified German wine regions. About one third of German wine is QbA wine, a percentage that is rapidly declining. Qualitätswein mit Prädikat (QmP) means assured quality wine. About two thirds of German wine is QmP wine, a percentage that is rapidly increasing. QmP wines may not be chaptalized and must come from a well-defined area. These wines are divided into six subcategories, described in the Launching… article. Of the thirteen German wine regions only the two biggest, Rheinhessen and Pfalz, devote more than 10% of their wine production to table wine. Of course, when you talk about German table wine, you’re talking about Germany and not a specific region. So much for generalities, let’s see how the Deutscher Tafelwein actually turned out.
OUR WINE REVIEW POLICY All wines that we taste and review are purchased at the full retail price.
Wine Reviewed
Schmitt Winzertanz 9% alcohol about $8 (1 liter bottle) No vintage year
Let’s start with the marketing materials, which are a lot shorter than usual. Light straw color; apple, pear, and citrus aroma, off-dry peach flavor, medium body and finish. Serving suggestion, serve lightly chilled with pork chops and apple sauce. I’m not really pleased that the label mentions no vintage year. Anyway, this bottle has a cute label with peasants dancing near wine barrels. The first pairing was with a commercial shepherd’s pie, perked up a bit with Thai Chili Sauce. The wine was quite pleasant, even if short and not complex. It was a bit sweet. I didn’t taste everything that was promised me, but broken wine promises are not restricted to low-priced offerings. The wine went well with dry, thin biscuits containing slices of almonds and pistachios.
I next paired this wine with cold salmon filet accompanied by a red (surely because of ketchup) mayonnaise sauce and pearl onions, and a tomato, cucumber, and red onion salad. The wine retained its fruit and was moderately long, but a bit thin, I don’t really recommend this Deutscher Tafelwein with such a high quality salmon dish, but it wasn’t bad, especially for the price. In the presence of a nut chocolate cake the wine was refreshingly acidic.
The wine was appley and had a moderate length. I guess it is what you call a quaffing wine.
The final meal consisted of fried chicken breast strips, accompanied by green beans and rice. In this case the wine was fairly weak.
The Winzertanz was pleasant with a ripe French camembert cheese, handling it better than some of the more expensive wines that also accompanied this cheese. After I paired the wine with four meat dishes and two cheeses the bottle was still more than a third full. I don’t plan on finishing the bottle; I want to move on to other wines. But frankly, in some of my tastings the Winzertanz did a lot better than another, much more expensive wine. If I’m with a bunch of people who don’t want to spend a lot on wine and we are ordering simple food, I’ll be glad to drink this wine.
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