German wine the best vineyards in Germany are steep vineyards overlooking rivers, where mechanisation is impossible and a lot of manual labour is needed to produce the wine. Since it can be difficult to get ripe grapes in such a northernly location as Germany, the sugar maturity of grapes (must weight) as measured by the Oechsle scale have played a great role in Germany. German vintners on average crop their vineyards quite high, with yields averaging around 64-99 hl/ha, a high figure in international comparison. "New" crossings used for low-quality white wine commonly yield 150-200 hl/ha, while quality-conscious producers who strive to
The Fox and the Grapes Phaedrus (IV.3) which is terse and to the point: In her version of La Fontaine's Fables, Marianne Moore underlines his ironic comment on the situation in a final pun, "Better, I think, than an embittered whine". Although the fable describes purely subjective behaviour, the English idiom "sour grapes" which develops from the story is now often used also of envious disparagement to others. Similar expressions exist in other languages, but in the Scandinavian equivalent the fox makes its comment about rowanberries since grapes are not common in northern latitudes. The French fable of La Fontaine (III.11) is almost as concise