The northernmost wine-producing country in Europe, Germany's cool climates are mostly suitable for white grapes. The best vineyards are situated along rivers such as the Rhine and the Mosel, which temper the extremes of weather and help the grapes ripen. German wines are named after the places they come from, usually a combination of a village name, a vineyard name, and a grape name.

While not known as widely as other German wine growing areas, Nahe has quite a few world class producers who tend towards a mixture of tropical fruit and ethereal elegance in their Rieslings.

France is the standard bearer for all the world's wines, with regard to the types of grapes that are used to make wine and with the system of defining and regulating winemaking. Its Appellation d'Origine Controlee, or AOC system, is the legislative model for most other European countries. Most French wines are named after places. The system is hierarchical; generally the smaller and more specific the region for which a wine is named, the higher its rank.