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
Quinta classification of Port vineyards in the Douro that the wines that were available were of high quality and not something that could tarnish the reputation of the Douro. Over the years the system of licensing growers turned into a rating classification operated by the IVDP. The system only pertains the production of Port. A quinta that is growing grapes for both Port and table wines, can do whatever they like with the grapes destined for table wine production regardless of its classification rating. Each year the IVDP classifies and rates the vineyards on an A-F scale with A being the highest level. A quinta's rating will dictate