General Germany Flashcards
What is the 1971 German Law AKA?
Deutsches Weingesetz
What were the major reasons for the 1971 German Wine Law?
Create legal terms for labeling
- Sweetness terms due to increase sweet wine production made possible from sterile filtration
- Created Qba and Pradiakt laws
Conforming with EU regulations
How many Anbaugebiete were formed in 1971 Germany Wine Law?
11
Sachsen and Saale-Unstrut were apart of Western Germany
What terms were commonly used before the 1971 German Wine Law?
Hochfeine Auslese
Natur
Nikolauswein
How did the 1971 Germany Wine Law impact the size and number of einzellagen?
Consolidated 30,000 to 2,700
- Created Grosslagen which is a broad collection of vineyards with no quality indication
Created a minimum 5 ha size
What is QbA and what are the rules?
Qualitatswein bestimmer Anbaugebiet - “Quality wine from a growing region”
- 7% alcohol - EU min 8.5%
- Chaptalization is allowed
What is Tafelwein?
Table wine
- Can be labeled Deutscher Wein if produced from German grapes
- Vintage and variety are allowed
What is QmP and what are the rules?
Qualitatswein mit Pradikat
- Subset within QbA
- Created ripness designations - Kabinett, Spatlese, Auslese, Beerenauslese, Eiswein, Trockenbeerenauslese
- Bans chaptalitzation because ripeness is determined at harvest
- Min alcohol of 7% for Kabinett, Spatlese, and Auslese
- Min alcohol of 5.5 for Beerenauslese, Eiswein, Trockenbeerenauslese
What is “Amtliche Prüfungsnummer”?
An official number awarded to QbA and QmP wines after passing a mandatory chemical and sensory anaylsis
What does each set of digit represent in an AP number?
1 - Location of the exam board
2 - Village in which the wine was produced
3 - Producer
4 - Unique number of bottling
5 - Year the wine was tested, usually 1 year after vintage
What % of German wine production is QbA or QmP?
98%
How did the Pradikat system impact plantings?
Crossing like Muller-Thurgau were favored because of their early ripening and ability to reaching Pradikat minimums
What is sussreserve?
Sterilized fresh grape must
- 1971 German wine law allows up to 15% of total volume of wine because RS no longer mattered for Pradikat ripeness designations
- Created disconnect from Pradikat and sweetness
What is Landwein?
IGP category including Trocken and Halbtrocken wines produced from any of 26 winegrowing regions called Landweingebiete
- Added in 1982
What changes were made in 1982 to the German Wine law?
- Added Landwein
- Added Eiswein as a pradikat level
- Allowed exceptions for famous vineyards smaller than 5 hectares
What changes were made in 2000 the German Wine Law?
- Added Selection
- “Superior dry”
- 9 g/L RS
- hand-harvest, single vineyard, single variety
- Yields are 60 hl/ha
- Auslese must weight - Added Classic
- “Harmoniously dry”
- max 15 g/L RS
- Monovarietal, no vineyard label - Classic and Selection were introduced to replace halbtrocken and trocken
- Never caught on
- Feinherb (slightly off-dry), though technically illegal, persists on labels
- Both show a superior minimum alcohol content of 12% (11.5% in the Mosel)
- Both wines may not be released prior to September 1 of the year following harvest
- Both Yields are restricted to 60 hl/ha
What changes were made in 1999 to the Germany Wine Law?
Erstes Gewaches got formal approval for use on the labels of dry wines from specific sites in Rheingau
- Unlike the Charta designation, or the Grosses Gewächs of the VDP, the Erstes Gewächs category is available to all producers who adhere to its requirements and have a share in the selected land—which amounts to almost one-third of the entire planted area of the Rheingau—resulting in a watered-down sense of “first growth” by anyone’s standards.
- Erstes Gewächs, now accompanied by the logo of three arches, is legally sanctioned and therefore spelled out in full on Rheingau labels.
What is Goldkapsule?
A Gold capsule (metal foil) practice became common because the 1971 German Wine law prevent sweetness terms
- In some cases they use an even longer golden capsule (lange Goldkapsule) to indicate an ever rarer and more special selection
- Linked to botrytis
- Beerenauslese may be declassified to Auslese with a Goldkapsule because it showed more pure varietal character than the higher Pradikat would typically demonstrate even though it was by law able to be considered Beerenauslese
- Besides the color of the capsule, the only way to tell a Goldkapsule wine is to note it’s A.P number
- In the Mosel, producers have developed a second code to distinguish among different tiers of wine within a Pradikat and from the same vineyard by adding ,** or ** stars, sometimes in conjunction with a Goldkapsule
What is the VDP?
Verband Deutscher Pradikatsweinguter
An association of growers (195 in 2017) German producers dedicated to high quality
When was the VDP created and why?
Originally in 1910 as VDNV - Verband Deutscher Naturweinvigerer
4 regional winegrowers associations that promoted the sale of Natur (unchaptalized) wines at auction
When did the VDP create their vineyard classification system and why?
1984
Used old tax registries and Napoleonic maps to rediscover parcels forgotten after the 1971 German Wine law or Flurbereinigung (physically restructuring vineyards including flattening or filling ancient terraced vineyards)
Officially launched a 3 tier system in 2002
Refined in 2012 to current system
What are the membership requires of the VDP?
- Commitment to classification system
- High minimum must weights
- Lower maximum yields of auslese or above
- Hand-harvest for single vineyards, auslese or above
- Must cultivate 80% or more traditional grapes set by regional association
- Cannot use Grosslagen terms from 1971 wine law
- VDP logo must be on all bottles
What is the VDP logo called?
Traubenadler
List the vineyards tiers of the VDP system
Gutswein - Anbaugebiet
Orstwein - Village
Erste Lage - Premier Cru
Grosse Lage - Grand Cru
What is commonly added to the name of Gutswein?
Name of anbaugebeit and a fantasty name?