Viticultural Practices
Many of the best vineyards in Germany are steep vineyards overlooking rivers, where mechanisation is impossible and a lot of manual labour is needed to produce the wine.
Since it can be difficult to get ripe grapes in such a northernly location as Germany, the sugar maturity of grapes (must weight) as measured by the Oechsle scale have played a great role in Germany.
German vintners on average crop their vineyards quite high, with yields averaging around 90-100 hl/ha, a high figure in international comparison. "New" crossings used for low-quality white wine commonly yield 150-200 hl/ha, while quality-conscious producers who strive to produce well-balanced wines of concentrated flavours will rarely exceed 50 hl/ha.
Many wines in Germany are produced using organic farming or biodynamic methods.
Read more about this topic: German Wine
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