GERMANY

Germany calls to mind the Riesling grape, with all its floral, petroleum goodness and its delicate sweetness and laser beam acidity. Unfortunately, her wines are too often lumped into a "sweet" category in the wine-buyer's mind, and are therefore overlooked. In fact, Riesling is a fantastically flexible wine on the table, and the best somms know this very well. But Germany's Pinot Noir, in the right hands, is equally delicate, ethereal. Probably everything depends on the incredible terroirs of the Mosel and the Rheingau and the other great wine regions of Germany, always along a curvaceous river with the best vineyards sited on the north bank, south-facing. Germany is a new area for us, but its wines fit right into our idea of terroir...Riesling and Pinot Noir probably being the varietals most profoundly marked by Place, of any in the world.