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 Quinta classification of Port vineyards in the Douro The Quinta classification of Port vineyards in the Douro is a system that grades the "terroir" and quality potential of vineyards in the Douro wine region to produce grapes suitable for the production of Port wine. In Portuguese, a "quinta" is a wine producing estate, which can be a winery or a vineyard. While other wine classification systems may classify the winery (such as the 1855 Bordeaux classification), the Douro quinta classification is based upon the physical characteristics of the vineyard. The classification system is run by the "Instituto dos Vinhos do