stuck on reislings

[Zinner]

It seems very likely, as Innkeeper has noted, that they were going through the categories of German wines that are designated Qualitatswein mit Pradikat(QmP) which is simply "quality wine with special distinction, or special attributes." The Germans are classifying them as to the ripeness of the grapes at harvest.

If you're trying to figure out how they might taste...well, the ones labeled trocken and halbtrocken are usually dry(not sweet) whatever category they fall in. This means a Spatlese labeled "trocken" can taste less sweet than a classic Kabinett.

Otherwise:

Kabinett -most often lighter, just-ripe with nice acidity...just a hint of sweetness.

Spatlese -literally it means "late picked" so the wines have more concentrated flavors but are not necessarily much sweeter than the Kabinett category.

Auslese -this is "out picked" which means some bunches were selected as very ripe, so they are more intensely flavored and usually fairly sweet.

Beerenauslese -literally "berries out picked" so it suggests that at harvest, individual grapes are chosen that are considered overripe and these are rich, sweet and very concentrated.

Trockenbeerenauslese -sounds funny to put trocken in there since trocken can designate a dry wine, but trocken can be translated either "dry" or "dried" and in this case, it means the individual grapes are dried on the vine so they resemble raisins and the juice in them is concentrated. The winery is risking losing them to frost, hail, storms or just natural predators such as birds and deer. There is very little juice in the grapes and these are extremely concentrated and usually quite expensive. But they are lusciously sweet like honey. They are often age-worthy.

The Beerenauslese and Trockenbeerenauslese categories are considered dessert wines. Usually these are written out on labels but when talking, you may hear people call them BA and TBA.

You may see one more category...

Eiswein -means "ice wine" and the sugar content at harvest must be at least equal to Beerenauslese. The producer waits, often into December, until a sudden drop in temperature naturally freezes the grapes on the vine. I have one bottle of Eiswein for which the grapes were picked on Christmas because that's when the temperature dropped. These are also luscious and sweet and dessert wine category.

By the way, although Riesling is the noble grape of Germany, you will sometimes see the wines in the dessert categories that are made from other varietals such as Scheurebe and these can be luscious too.

Can you tell that I just love German wines?


[This message has been edited by Zinner (edited 12-15-2004).]