From: winalski@adserv.enet.dec.com (Paul S. Winalski)
Subject: Re: 3 German wine recommendations?
Reply-To: winalski@adserv.enet.dec.com (Paul S. Winalski)
Organization: Digital Equipment Corporation, Nashua NH
Date: Thu, 31 Dec 1992 00:08:17 GMT


In article <JsXLwB2w165w@monsoon.com>, sg@monsoon.com (Sunil Gupta) writes:
|>
|>>  Qualitiswein mit Pradikat  (sometimes abreviated QMP).  If you select
|>>  a QMP wine it may have a predicate (Pradikat).  These include
|>
|>As far as I know, QMP is equivalent to "Quality Wine with Distinction",
|>not "Quality Wine with Predicate".

Correct.

|>>  Trocken (dry)  (not very sweet)
|>>  Auslese        (sweeter)
|>>  Spatlese       (sweeter than that)
|>>  Beerenauslese  (hand selected grapes)
|>>  Trockenbeerenauslese  (hand selected raisins)
|>>  Eiswien        (made from frozen grapes)
|>>  No predicate indicated on a QMP means trocken
|>
|>Spatlese is drier than Auslese. I believe that Trocken, Halb-Troken and
|>Liebfraumilch are used only on QbA wines (a lower designation than QMP).
|>None of these categories are meant to imply that the berries are
|>hand-picked (though TBA often are). A TBA is not made from raisined
|>grapes but from those suffering from noble rot (i.e., they have been
|>botrytised). It should also be noted that these categories are strictly
|>government-controlled and that there is a specified sugar and quality
|>level for each category. There is also an additional category below
|>Spatlese, which is Kabinett.

Trocken (dry) and Halbtroken (semi-dry) are designations that are orthogonal
to the QmP scale.  In particular, the last statement (no predicate indicated
on a QmP means trocken) is false.  First of all, the label MUST indicate
one of the names, and secondly, trocken is not one of the names that must
be indicated.

The QmP scale legally defines the must weight (sugar content) for the grape
juice from which the wine is fermented.  Each QmP level sets a minimum must
weight for each grape variety in each region.  The levels (and their rough
English translation) are:

	Kabinett (reserve)
	Spaetlese (late harvest)
	Auslese (selected harvest)
	Beerenauslese (berry-selected harvest)
	Trockenbeerenauslese (dried-berry-selected harvest)

Spaetlese gets its name because, to meet the must weight requirements, the grapes
must be left on the vine to ripen longer than usual.  To get auslese-level
must weights, one must select only the ripest of the late-harvested grapes,
usually at least some of which will have been affected by noble rot.  To
achieve beerenauslese level, only bunches that have been affected by noble rot
can be used (otherwise you never get this concentration of sugar in grapes).
For trockenbeerenauslese, the botrytis-affected grapes must be left on the vine
until they have shrivelled almost into fuzzy rasins.

There is one further QmP category, which is Eiswein.  This is made from must of
Beerenauslese or Trockenbeerenauslese sweetness, but the concentration of sugar
is done by having the grapes freeze on the vine and then pressing the
frozen grapes.  The water has crystallized out, leaving the remaining grape
juice super-concentrated with sugar.

The terms Trocken and Halbtrocken refer to how much residual sugar is left in
the wine.  A Trocken has no residual sugar--it is completely dry.  A
Halbtrocken has a much smaller amount of residual sugar than is customary.
This is independent of the must weight (starting sugar concentration) of the
grape juice before fermentation, so it is possible to have a Kabinett Trocken
or a Spaetlese Trocken.  Once you get to the Auslese, Beerenauslese, and
Trockenbeeerenauslese levels, there's way too much sugar for the yeasts to
ferment it all (in fact, you have to use special yeasts to induce any
fermentation at all in Trockenbeerenauslese must), so you don't see any
Auslese Trockens around.


|>An oft-stated rule of thumb for German wines is that the higher the
|>sweetness, the better the quality, hence the higher pricing. While this
|>is generally true, the past few vintages ('88-'90) have produced some
|>excellent Kabinett and Spaetlese wines.

Indeed, I can attest that the Kabinett and Spaetlese wines from these years
are excellent to outstanding.  The other factors (aside from quality)
contributing to the higher pricing of Auslese, BA, and TBA wines are their
rarity and the risks taken in making them.  To get these wines, noble rot has
to hit the vineyards and there has to be enough time before the first frost
for the noble rot to take its course.  1989 is the first year in the Mosel-
Saar-Ruwer and Rheingau areas that these conditions have occurred in widespread
fashion since 1976.  If a producer leaves part of the harvest on the vine in
hopes of making a BA or TBA, he takes a big risk that frost or rains will
come earlier, allowing an Eiswein at best or at worst, no wine at all.  Also,
juice yields plummet once noble rot takes hold.  The reason that the juice is
so concentrated is that the grapes shrivel up.  Yields of BA and TBA are at best
10% of normal.  This means that a BA or TBA must sell for at least 10 times
a Kabinett or Spaetlese to be economically worthwhile.  Even at a retail price
of US$200/bottle, most producers take a loss on their BAs and TBAs, and only
produce them for the prestige and the supreme expressions of winemaking art that
they represent.

--PSW
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