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
Wine in religious communities of the Middle East drinks such as "tilā’" and "naqir" as inebriating and thus forbade the pressing of grapes and the drinking of pressed grape juice. As the early Muslim armies conquered more territory, though, increasing populations of non-Muslims were brought under Muslim rule, necessitating the development of a body of law regulating the interaction between Muslims and non-Muslim dhimmis. A document used for guiding Muslim pacts with dhimmi communities known as the "Shuruṭ ‘Umar" forbids dhimmis from selling forbidden products – pork, wine, carrion – to Muslims. The Egyptian Jewish communities of the medieval period used wine sacramentally in feasts, prayers, and at