Ernst Loosen

Wehlener Sonnenuhr on the Mosel River

​What two countries consistently made great wine 100 years ago? Most people guess France along with Italy, Spain, or Portugal. Few guess Germany, which, along with France, made the best wines and still do today.

While Italy, Spain, and Portugal had some great regions and producers a century ago, the overall quality was poor. As many wine experts say, quality German riesling is the most underappreciated wine in the world, and even Germans prefer beer as the national beverage of choice. Have you ever seen riesling promoted at an October Fest event? At Haskell's a few years ago, I was buying Joh. Jos. Prum Auslese wines for $24.95 from a steady 2002 vintage. Once I served them to friends, the shelves at Haskell's became less full.

Here's what you need to know to fully appreciate this undervalued wine, plus five recommendations of superb rieslings (and where to find them on sale):

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Ernst Loosen

Mosel region in Germany

​In this third part of a series about important wine terms and concepts, we'll talk about appellation, which tells you what region of the world your wine comes from. (You can read here about the first two terms, terroir and vintage.) Appellations are geographic areas that have been mapped out to identify the boundaries of a certain wine region, but in many countries they are more complex than just geographic areas.

Here's are the basics you need to know when buying wine, along with five recommendations of great wines, available at local stores, that illustrate particular famous appellations.

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