With successive excellent vintages under its belt, Germany is offering great wines at reasonable prices, and particularly in their drier, Feinherb or Trocken styles.

A real bonus too is that many of the wines are low in alcohol, a factor that is becoming increasingly important for today’s wine drinker. You notice too how good the reds are; much more depth and flavour from some warm, long autumns. Couple this with the brilliance of Riesling and you have plenty of reasons to choose from this section.

The Saar joins the Mosel at Konz just outside Trier with plenty of famous names as you go upstream: Ayl, Wiltingen, Ockfen, Saarburg, all with vineyards clinging to the steepest hillsides with that all important southerly exposure. Peter Reinert at Kanzem doesn’t have many famous sites but greatly over-delivers from the peripheral ones, making delightfully light, pure wines with white fruit flavours. Up above the river is the village of Oberemmel, where the jovial Eberhard von Kunow of von Hövel makes classic Saar Riesling with polished fruit from his monopole Hütte vineyard. On past Trier, with its magnificent cathedral and Roman remains, is the little Ruwer valley where Christoph Tyrell makes crystalline, fruity wines from the great Karthäuserhof vineyard, including perhaps the best dry wine of the region.

Coming down to Piesport in the Mittel Mosel, you snake through vines set out in a great horseshoe over the village. Here Gernot Hain is making the most of his father Kurt’s acquisition of vineyards in the best parts of the Goldtröpfchen and Domherr, producing wines with great richness, typical of the deep soils here.

You follow the river to Mülheim, where Dirk Richter is one of the best exponents of the famous Brauneberger Juffer on the opposite bank, and then pick your way through the tourists in Bernkastel to Ernst Loosen’s house by the river. Ernst was largely responsible for revolutionising quality on the Mosel and his wines continue to set the standard. Graach is the next village, where Willi and Christoph Schaefer make magnificent, long-term wines on their tiny holding. The wall of vines which started at Bernkastel becomes now the famous Wehlener Sonnenuhr, with its thin soils giving delicate, mineral wines with exotic fruit flavours which Martin Kerpen makes the most of and gathers high marks from well known American critics, amongst others. Past Zeltingen and it’s now the north bank of the river which has the southerly exposition: the famous Urziger Würzgarten with its red volcanic rock; the blue slate of the neighbouring Erdener Prälat, nestling by the river under the rocks; and the Erdener Treppchen. Here maestro Stefan Justen’s Meulenhof wines have wonderful, creamy fruit to them.

The Nahe valley is about an hour away over the other side of the Hunsrück plateau. We would argue that Helmut Dönnhoff is the leading grower and arguably the best in Germany with intense, mineral-laden wines and an Eiswein which borders on the legendary. Where it meets the Rhine, Bingen offers a wonderful view of the steep vineyards on the Rüdesheimer Berg where Johannes Leitz has fashioned a great reputation. Further along is Oestrich, home to Peter Jakob Kühn who exploded onto the German wine scene in the early 1990s winning awards for the top dry wine in Germany. Now converted to biodynamic methods, he continues to make concentrated, rich wines that are amongst the best in Germany. At the other end of the Rheingau, overlooking the Main rather than the Rhine, is Hochheim, home to Queen Victoria’s favourite wines. Franz Werner Michel at Domdechant Werner owns many top ex-ecclesiastical vineyards here and his wines have a smooth elegance to them.

Turn south to the Pfalz, and the village of Laumersheim. The agriculture is mixed here, but there are plenty of vineyards on gentle slopes above the village. The Knipser brothers have forged a reputation as Germany’s leading producer of barrique-aged reds here, mainly Pinot Noir, but also Dornfelder and even Syrah. Their top wines have the elegance of a good Chambolle, and you will find their whites are pretty good too. Further south again you pass through the famous villages of Deidesheim, Ruppertsberg, Forst and Wachenheim, where Bürklin-Wolf are based, completely committed to biodynamic viticulture. The dry wines here rank with the very best and the estate uses a Burgundian method of vineyard classification.

The final leg of the journey takes you to Baden and the Kaiserstühl, an extinct volcano which rises out of the middle of the plain of the Rhine opposite Colmar. This is a wonderfully picturesque area, which the Germans try and keep quiet about! We’ve noted that it also has some excellent restaurants tucked away. This is Pinot rather than Riesling country, both red and white are considered excellent food wines, particularly those of Salwey, where Wolfdietrich has handed over the reins. His son Konrad is bringing a touch more refinement to the reds and elegance to the whites without compromising the concentration and depth they have always had.

Stephen Crosland