comparing German wines to US wines

[Randy Caparoso]

Well, now I am going to answer my own question. After (in my usual fashion) firing off my last note, I checked with Jancis Robinson's Oxford Companion and confirmed that Eiswein must indeed be harvested with must weights at least at the level of Beeerenauslese. Just to be sure, I checked out my little Der Grosse Ring ("The Elite Estates") book by Verlag Heinen (translated by Rudi Wiest in '83), who confirms Robinson; but who also writes, rather nebulously, that Eiswein is "not an official quality classification." It does, however, refer to grapes that are frozen solid on the vine; which is why you often see Eiswein on a label without a BA or TBA classification.

All of which does not quite explain to me, a professional of two decades, why I have seen, tasted and served Eiswein Ausleses and Eiswein Spatleses over the years (well, pre-'80s, I guess) by estates as established as Thanisch's Bernkasteler Doktor.

Eiswein, by the way, is technically (or is it to say, "unofficially?") a wine that is made from frozen, but not botrytized, grapes. Yet one of the tricks (not super common, though) some estates do to protect their potential Eiswein is cover them with plastic sheets to protect them through November when freezing temperatures normally occur. Naturally, some botrytis has been known to occur under the partly damp conditions of the plastic sheeting. Granted, not a lot. But enough to add further interest to this intriguing, high stakes, and evidently quite gameful, pursuit.

[This message has been edited by Randy Caparoso (edited 06-16-99).]

[This message has been edited by Randy Caparoso (edited 06-16-99).]