Germany is poised for its smallest wine harvest in a quarter of a century after cold weather at flowering and localised hailstorms affected production. According to the German Wine Institute (DWI), quality will be ‘good’, and the wines will be less full-bodied than recent vintages, exhibiting greater freshness and fruitiness. The total harvest of just under 6.9m hectolitres is 25% down on the 2009 harvest, with the hail-afflicted Pfalz region down 30% and Germany’s largest wine-producing region, the Rheinhessen, falling 22%.