A surfeit of German wine guides

How many wine guides does a country need? Well, if that country is Germany, apparently quite a lot. Or so one might be led to believe if one goes by the number of recent publications ready to take you by the hand and lead you to the nation’s best wine producers. 

For quite a few years the market seemed to be carved up between Gault Millau WeinGuide Deutschland, which first appeared in 1994, and Eichelmann, who entered the scene with his title Eichelmann Deutschlands Weine in 2000. How many copies of both were printed and actually sold has...