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CONTENTS:3-7: FEATURE STORY Trips8-9: WHAT‟S COMING UP London Fine Wine ShowImporters‟ meetingETM Group/ WSET tastings10-12 NEWS Award winsPress dropHarvest update13: WSTA UPDATE Minimum pricing in Scotland14-15: HEARD IT ON THE GRAPEVINE Press quotes16: PRESS HIGHLIGHTS Recent coverage for German wines17: KEEP UP TO SPEED Wines of Germany contacts

Trips: Food and wine bloggersRenowned blogger Douglas Blyde and food and wine travelwriter Felicity Cloake went out to Germany with the DWI duringAugust for an exquisite food and wine experience in the Pfalz,Rheinhessen and Rheingau regions.The itinerary crammed in dinner at one of Germany‟s manyMichelin-starred restaurants – Wartenberger Mühle; tastingsat and tours of wineries including Gaul, Kruger-Rumpf, Leitz,Reinhartshausen and Balthasar Ress; an afternoon at theRheingauer Weinwoche and a session discovering herbs andwine with the Kräuterhexen (pictured).Coverage received to date includes:•3 articles on Foodepedia•3 articles on intoxicating prose•1 article on Yonder EuropeA piece in The Guardian is expected to come out shortly.

Trips: Tesco.comDirk Kind and Nick Juby from Tesco.com visited Germany in late August with a mission to learn all thereis to know about German wines – a tough brief but we do like a challenge…The itinerary took Dirk and Nick on an intensive tour of the Franken, Pfalz and Rheingau regionsThe feedback from Dirk and Nick was very encouraging, with Dirk stating:‘The trip has opened the world of dry German wines to me, as well as the very nicereds. In the past I had only looked at fruity Rieslings from the Mosel and Rheingau, butnow understand far more about the drier styles and the different grape varieties fromFranconia and Pfalz such as Müller-Thurgau, Sylvaner and Dornfelder etc.‘We met some promising producers… so thank you for a very interesting trip.’

Trips: national pressSeptember was a busy month for press trips with three of the UK‟s top winewriters - Tim Atkin, Hamish Anderson and Johnny Ray – visiting the wine regions ofGermany with the DWI.Tim and Hamish spent three days travelling around the Rheinhessen and thePfalz, visiting wineries including Reichsrat von Buhl, Knipser and Winter. Both Timand Hamish were impressed and surprised by the quality of Rheinhessen PinotNoirs with Tim regularly updating his Twitterfeed with comments such as “TheseGerman Pinots are excellent. 07 Becker Kalkgestein world class. On our way toKnipser... ” and “Kirchspiel Riesling vertical at Groebe. Hugely impressive. Newestate to me. The best kind of tradition.” – praise indeed!Due to his hectic schedule, Johnny Ray spent a rather manic day and half in theMosel at the beginning of September, exploring the region and meeting some ofthe new generation of internationally minded winemakers, including members ofGeneration Riesling, Simply Wine, Mosel Jünger and the Klitzekleiner Ring.In what must be record turnaround, Johnny wrote up his feature which appearedin the Daily Telegraph (circulation 681,322) on Saturday 18 th September (seebelow).The feature was Johnny‟s penultimate wine column for the Daily Telegraph asJohnny is leaving after six years to write for GQ magazine from October – VictoriaMoore takes over from October so remember to check out the new look winecolumn in the Daily Telegraph on October 2 nd !

Trips coverage:

What‟s coming upLondon Fine Wine Show – 15 th – 17 th OctoberWines of Germany are taking a generic stand at this consumer event run bythe drinks business, to be held for the first time this year at the Chelsea OldTown Hall from Friday 15th – Sunday 17th October.The organisers of the event are targeting high net worth, AB consumers andwine connoisseurs from the London area in their pre-event marketingactivities, offering them chance to learn, taste and buy fine wines with an RRPin excess of £10.The event also caters to the trade with a trade tasting session targeted atsommeliers and buyers taking place from 10.30am – 12.00 on Saturday 16 th .Wines to be shown on the stand include a range of Rieslings from Max Ferd.Richter, Fritz Haag, Dr Loosen & August Kessler along with Spätburgundersfrom Von Buhl and Munzberg.For further information, contact Lucy Richardson atlucy.richardson@phippspr.com

What‟s coming upImporters‟ Meeting – 17 th November 2010The 2010 Importers‟ Meeting will be held at German House onWednesday 17 th November. Further details to follow shortly by email.Steffen Schindler, export director for the DWI, and Jeremy Beadles,Chief Executive of WSTA will be at the meeting to present the currentstate of German wines exports to the UK and the legislative andtrade obstructions that importers and wineries face when trading inthe UK.ETM/WSET education talks – 18 th November 2010Steffen Schindler will be combining his trip to the above meeting witha chance to give educational talks on German wine to the Wine andSpirit Association and ETM Group, one of London‟s leading gastropubgroups that owns establishments including The Botanist, TheGun and The Empress of India.For further details, contact Lucy Richardson by email atlucy.richardson@phippspr.com and tickets available from WSET.

News in brief: Award winsGerman wines have been awarded an impressive number of goldmedals in this year‟s industry competitions: IWSC, IWC andDWWA. And with the 2009 vintage in Germany hailed as one ofthe best in recent years, next year‟s entrants hold even greaterpromise.Germany‟s wines achieved the greatest number of gold medals inIWSC, with 21 awarded -18 of which were voted best in classcomparedto last year‟s 12. The IWC also saw an increase in goldmedals from 16 in 2009 to 19 this year. The DWWA did notdisappoint either, with 86% more gold medals awarded in 2010.At recent award ceremonies, a number of trophies were given toGerman wines including the IWC International Riesling Trophy tothe 2008 Domdechany Hochheim Riesling Erstes Gewächs,Weingut Domdechant Werner‟sches.

News in brief: Press dropFifteen national and regional wine writers were sent aselection of award-winning German wines available onthe high street in August and September as part of thelatest Wines of Germany press drops.National wine writers including Jane MacQuitty, DavidWilliams and Jamie Goode were targeted and presscoverage is expected to follow in the coming months sowatch this space…Our previous press drop in the Spring generated 32pieces of coverage across a wide range of mediaincluding consumer titles, regional and nationalnewspapers and online e-zines.

News in brief: Harvest updateThe 2010 harvest began in early September in Germany's wine regions. Picking of theearly ripening varieties for the vinification of the popular light wines called "Federweissen"commenced at the end of August.2010 was marked by extremely variable weather. Late budbreak at the end of April wasfollowed by cool weather during flowering in June. An extremely hot July encouragedvigorous growth and the delay in vegetation became smaller. An unusually cool and wetAugust followed with the most precipitation ever recorded for that month. Fruitdevelopment advanced much slower than in the previous year and the ripening stage isnow about average for the last ten years.The cool temperatures during flowering led to diminished fruit-set in many regions. Poorweather further lowered fruit quantities in the vineyard. With estimates at hand fromthroughout the country, Norbert Weber, president of the German Vintner Association,expects a slightly lower than average yield volume of approximately 8.5 million hectolitres.Harvesting of the first Müller-Thurgau and other early-ripening varieties is currentlyunderway. Picking of the late ripening varieties such as Riesling, Silvaner or Pinot Noir isestimated to commence shortly. Just how the vintage will be in quality shall be seenduring the next weeks. Vintners hope for continued development in ripening benefitted bysunny autumn weather and a golden October.For further news on the 2010 harvest, check the website over the coming months:www.winesofgermany.co.uk

WSTA UpdateOn 2nd September the Scottish government announced that it intended to seta minimum price of 45pence per unit of alcohol. The WSTA has respondedsaying „it won‟t tackle alcohol misuse but will punish families on low incomesand pensioners.‟The WSTA is calling for a ban on below cost selling made on a national basisto make sure it is workable. The WSTA supports a ban on selling alcoholbelow the level of duty + VAT on the basis that these are both consumer taxeswhich ought to be passed onto the consumer. WSTA believes a system thatproduces different price restrictions in different areas would cause confusionfor the consumer.For all the latest development visit the WSTA website: www.wsta.co.uk

Heard it on the grapevine…With German wine youusually get what youpay for – but its worthpaying.Bob Tyrer, SundayTimes, 11 July 2010I'd also encourage you to rediscover the pleasures ofGerman Riesling Kabinett- I think of it as perfectcricket match wine.Simon Woods, Square Meal Lifestyle, 1 July 2010World countries like Chile and Australiaare emphasising their cool- climateproduction, but they're left in the shade (orperhaps that should be the sun) byGerman productions, where the bestmadewines have a natural elegance andno danger of over-ripenessOLN, 9 July 2010German whites remainunderrated and a coolrefreshing glass of dry RieslingKabinett is, for me, a winner.Olly Smith, Mail on Sunday, 4July 2010

Heard it on the grapevine…Winemaking in Germany has never beenmore brilliant, the weather never - in recenttimes - more propitiou for ripening grapes fullywhile retaining the freshness that is Germanwines' special trait. The 2009s are easier tolike at this early stage than any Germanvintage I can remember.Germany andArgentina recorded thebiggest increases inaverage prices, withrises of 9.1% and 9.3%[in the UK]respectively.Graham Holter, OLN,6 September 2010Jancis Robinson, The FT, 10 July 2010For a country whose reputationwas, until recently, based oncloyingly sweet and blandwines, it's becoming clearGermany has a whole lot moreto offer the adventurous winedrinker.Natasha Hughes, Food &Travel, August 2010Dry German Rieslings are serious wines -unlike any other whites in the world. Nothingrivals their terroir definition.David Motion, Decanter, August 2010Perfumed, fruity and even slightlysweet wines on the other hand, canoffer good matches. Try off-dryGerman Riesling.Susy Atkins, Olive, September 2010

Press Highlights

Keep up to speed…• Follow us on Twitter and join our Facebook fan-page:WinesofgermanyFacebookContact us:• Telephone number: (0)20 7759 7405• Address: Wines of Germany, c/o Phipps, Exeter Street, London, WC2E 7DU• Email: gwis@phippspr.com• URL: www.winesofgermany.co.uk