I know 5 German words now!

[VouvrayHead]

Trockenbeerenausele (TBA)
is the sweetest of the bunch.
I always found that "Trocken" misleading, too.
Hopefully some german linguist on this board will clarify for us!

There are varying degrees of sweetness in the lower levels, but in general it's from dry to sweetest:

QBA (not under QMP governance-- can be drier or sweet, like Dragonstone for instance)
Kabinett
Spatlese
Auslese
Beerenauslese
Eiswein
Trockenbeerenausele.

I've never had a dry Auslese, so that should be safe to recommend.
The last two, typically expensive and requiring bottle age, are both full-bore desert wines, but are made very differently.
Eiswein is made when the grapes are frozen on the vine. The liquid that remains unfrozen is much more saturated by sugar, so when carefully pressed, that sweet syrup is what comes out.
TBA, on the other hand, is picked shrivelled on the vine, hopefully infected with a fungus called Botrytis. The French, ever so poetic, call it noble rot in their language. The fungus sucks out the water, leaving the same sugary syrup left. Quite romantic. Because of the different sugar concentration methods, they can taste pretty different.

By the way, Canada makes some fantastic Eiswein, and can be a bit more affordable.
Mission Hill is a good one that's around $18 for a 1/4 bottle. Expensive by the ounce, but a 1/4 bottle is all 2 people need... [img]http://www.wines.com/ubb2/smile.gif[/img]

Frustratingly, noone in my state of Wisconsin has figured out how to make it well yet... And Mount Pleasant in my old Southern home of Missouri could. Go figure [img]http://www.wines.com/ubb2/frown.gif[/img]

[This message has been edited by VouvrayHead (edited 07-31-2006).]