Drier German wines infiltrate foreign lands

One of the many brakes on the long-overdue rehabilitation of German wine's reputation has been the strength of feeling about residual sugar levels. German wine drinkers tend to see sweetness as the work of the devil; traditional importers of German wine into its two major markets the US and the UK have been extremely wary, to say the least, of drier wine styles.

(My own view, for what it's worth, is – annoyingly, I'm sure – that there is a place for German wines with all levels of sweetness, so long as the results are well-balanced and well-made. The drier...