A few years back, I asked my boss a simple question. It is a question you hear often in the wine world, and you have your answer well rehearsed for when it is asked of you. In fact it's a question that you hope you never have to live up to the answer you give.

"If you could drink only one wine for the rest of your life what would it be?"

That ever-so-limiting question! One wine for the rest of my life! No mood swings, no summer, no winter, no celebrations, no barbecues. One wine for all occasions, all moods, all guests, all-encompassing.

The answer I received from my boss, a famous, well-respected sommelier whom I look to very highly, was German rieslings. Not the answer I expected. I was waiting for burgundy or bordeaux, or anything from Angelo Gaja or maybe champagne, as we tended to drink it almost nightly after work, but certainly not German rieslings.

The common misconception is all rieslings are sweet. While there are certainly a ton of sweet rieslings available on the market, there are a number of excellent rieslings that are dry. It is also a common thought that they tend to be very fruity, simple wines. In fact, they can be extraordinarily complex, with layers of fruit flavors, minerals, flowers and herbs. They are wines of high acidity and are therefore great aging wines. Some of my favorite wines of all time are old German rieslings from the '70s and the 1990 vintage. As the wines age, the sugar drops out of them and they become very dry, complex and even tastier than when young.

German wines are categorized by the ripeness level of the grapes before fermentation. There are four levels of ripeness or quality for German wines: landwein, tafelwein, qualitatswein bestimmer anbaugebiete (QbA), and aualitatswein mit pradikat (QmP) (which will be changing its name to pradikatswein after 2007-08).

There are 13 anbaugebiete, or specified wine growing regions, in Germany. The first two categories are only sold in Germany, so it's the last two you will be looking for.

QmPs are broken down into further ripeness levels, from driest to sweetest or ripe to over-ripest, are kabinett, spatlese-late harvest, auslese, beerenauslese, eiswein and trockenbeerenauslese. The last three are not produced every year but only when the weather cooperates.

There is some carryover on the ripeness meter, and it is possible for a spatlese-level riesling to be drier than a kabinett riesling on the palate. It is also common practice for some winemakers to use over-ripe grapes from either the spatlese level or auslese level and produce completely dry wine. If this is the case, the label will say so — for example, Hans Wirsching Iphofer Julius-Echter-Berg Riesling Spatlese Trocken. Trocken means dry in German, so you know the wine will be dry even though it was made from spatlese, late-harvest, grapes.

The most important thing to know when purchasing German rieslings is how to read the label. There is a lot of information listed on the label, so it's important to know how to decipher it. With the wine listed above, even without the aid of the rest of the label, you know the wine is made from the riesling grape, which is late-harvested and fermented into a dry wine. Knowing that the grapes are of spatlese level, you can determine that the wine is a qualitatswein mit pradikat. Hans Wirching is the producer (whose family has been producing wine since the 1630s — that, too, is on the label). The wine comes from the Julius-Echter-Berg vineyard in the city of Iphofer. If you could see the wine label, you would also be able to determine that the wine is 14 percent alcohol, sold in a 750-milliliter bottle, the wine is from the Anbaugebiete of Franken, the vintage is 2006, and you would also be able to see the AP number, which tells you a bunch of information not necessary for the enjoyment of the wine.

A few wines I have seen around town lately are a 2005 JJ Prum Wehlener Sonnenuhr Riesling Kabinett, which is light and crisp, with tons of floral notes, citrus, and peach flavors.

Another is a Dr. PaulyBergweiler Bernkasteler Badstube Riesling Spatlese, also a 2005 and a very rich wine with hints of apple, cinnamon and mineral that finishes with a citrus notes.

And finally, a Weingut Gunderloch Nackenheim Rothenberg Riesling Auslese 2004, with aromas of honey, peaches and apricot, with a rich and succulent texture — simply mouthwatering!

Todd Ashline is sommelier/manager at Chef Mavro restaurant, 1969 S. King St.; http://chefmavro.com. He also is wine consultant for Cassis by Chef Mavro.