Pfalz

The Pfalz (the Palatinate, if you prefer) is Germany’s second-largest wine region by area, some 23,500 hectares strung along an 80-kilometre strip south of the Rheinhessen. The Haardt hills are the whole trick: they act as a wall, blocking the Atlantic weather and leaving a warm, dry, sunny pocket that’s about as benign as German viticulture gets. This is the Germany that looks least like your idea of Germany.

Which is why red grapes ripen here without a struggle. Riesling still rules, as it does across most of Germany, but the Pfalz has around 1,760 hectares of Pinot Noir (Spätburgunder) plus a long list of Pinot Blanc, Pinot Gris and Dornfelder. The best plots sit on the south-facing slopes of those hills, and what comes off them are fine, fresh reds without any of the weight you’d expect from a northern red.