KierdorfWein

Recently we had some questions about german wine so we took the time to answer some of these questions in order to help out our international customers.

Versteigerung

The wines indicated as Versteigerungswein are special reserve wines of the winery. These wines are of the highest quality produced in that vintage and will only be offered for sale at the VDP – Versteigerung, where only Germany’s most important distributors will be able to buy them for their customers. After that some of the wines will be held back by the winery in order to mature at their cellars and may be sold years later again at the auction. Therefore, these wines command exceptional prices as they offer exceptional quality.

The German “Prädikatsstufen”

German wine law knows 4 types of Wein. At the lowest level there is Deutscher Wein which may not use many of the noble grapes and may not state an Anbaugebiet.

The next level is Landwein. These wines are usually dry or off dry may state vintage and grape and must be from one of the 26 Landweingebiete. They are comparable to IGP wines.

The next level is Qualitätswein. These wines must be from one of the 13 Anbaugebiete i.e. Mosel and may only be made from permitted grapes. They will be tested by a tasting panel in order to ensure superior quality.

The highest level for German wines is Prädikatswein. Traditionally Germany did not have a system which focused to much on vineyards but on the amount of sugar the grapes had produced at the time of harvest, measured in degrees Oechsle. Newer grape varieties caused some problems there but this would go into too much detail.

The German Prädikats start with Kabinett. Kabinett wines are usually fine, light, elegant wines with slight residual sugar and light alcohol.

Spätlese wines are made from late gathered grapes which have been left on the wine to ripen.

Auslese wines are made from selected overripe bunches. The grapes may be affected by botrytis.

The first 3 categories are usually sold with some residual sugar. However, there are a few dry examples which will state “trocken” on the label.

Beerenauslese wines are made from selected berries affected with noble rot. They are only produced in outstanding years and provide luscious sweet dessert wines.

Eiswein. Grapes for this category need to obtain same sugar levels as for Beerenauslese. However, they may be made from grapes unaffected by botrytis and are harvested and pressed at -8°C (at least). They are only produced in outstanding years and provide luscious sweet dessert wines with good acidity.

Trockenbeerenauslese literally means selected dried up berries. Made from grapes affected with noble rot which are left to shrivel on the vines. They are only produced in outstanding years and provide luscious sweet dessert wines.

If you are looking for some dry examples of German wine you want to look for the word “trocken”. At the highest quality level “Großes Gewächs” marks the dry wines from a single vineyard comparable to a Grand Cru.

I hope this helps you along your journey of German wine.