Had I Been Ripped-off Or What?

You are really mixing, apples and oranges here, IMHO. The only thing in common between Alsace and Germany is the riesling grape. Almost all Alsatian wines are dry as opposed to QMP wines from Germany which try to reach a balance between sweetness and acidity. Wines with riesling and chenin blanc are not bad just because they are sweet. Thunderbird and Manishevitz Cream Concord has given sweet wines a bad rep. JJPrum is one of the best wineries in Germany, while Hugal's regular bottling are very good but not at the highest levels. The Germans have tried to readjust their image, putting trocken(dry) and haltrocken on labels to penetrate the American market.

The best wine I've ever tasted was a 1959 TBA by Schloss Vollrads and I've had 45 Latour, 82 Petrus and countless d'Yquems. There is nothing like eating an apple with a favourite from the Moselle.

Plenty of sweet wines are expensive. For example, Sauternes. One of my favorite wines is Kracher Beerenauslese, which is very sweet. Whether you've been ripped off or not is up to you. I had a 2000 Latour and I felt ripped off, too.

Dimitri

"Almost everyone shuns mildly sweet Riesling, particularly the sophisticated drinkers."

"Sophisticated" drinkers, maybe... but sophisticated drinkers as a group do no such thing IMO. Agreed that they don't sell well in Amurrica, but that is our loss.

Andy

"Agreed that they don't sell well in Amurrica, but that is our loss."

And of course you've heard the saying that Americans TALK dry but DRINK sweet. But that's another generalization!

e.

I might be the only American to buy exclusively semi-sweet to very sweet wines, but hey- I'm a trendsetter. I just found a Schoffit Pinot Gris sgn with only 4.5% alc and 450+ grams R.S.! Woo Hoo!