Ripeness Level

[wdonovan]

You have some faulty assumptions here. First one is that the German sugar level system is ripeness. It is not. It's based on the sugar level in the grapes at harvest. Least sugar in 'A', most in 'E'. Second bad assumption is that ripeness (or sugar level) equals quality and price. Not true. The ausleses, beerenausleses, TBA's, eisweins, etc. are expensive because, with higher sugar, they're increasing more expensive to produce. Thirdly, ripeness contributes to but is not the sole contributor to complexity et al. Nice attempt to reduce wine to a single factor but I'm afraid it ain't gonna work.