German Sekt

Question 1

Location

Answer 1

majority made from inexpensive base wine sourced from outside Germany: mainly Italy, France and Spain

Question 2

Grape Varieties

Answer 2

No limitations
Most popular of those grown in Germany:
- Riesling
- Pinot Blanc
- Pinot Noir

Question 3

Winery

Answer 3

• mostly Tank Method, but can be Transfer
• some premium Traditional method (Winzersekt)
• carbonation not allowed
• Min 10% abv
• min 3.5 bars pressure

Question 4

Classification: Sekt

Answer 4

literally “sparkling wine”

- Base wines sourced from any EU country

Question 5

Classification: Deutscher Sekt

Answer 5

• Base wine made of grapes sourced from Germany

- cross-regional blends allowed if not region specified

Question 6

Classification: Sekt b.A.

Answer 6

• Base wines from a specified Germany quality region
• name of region specified on bottle
• vineyard allowed if 85% of grapes from site
• vintage/variety allowed if 85% of grapes from v/v
• subject to quality control testing

Question 7

Classification: Winzersekt

Answer 7

• Premium Sekt from a single vintage and grape variety
• vintage, variety, and producer must be on label
• Estate grown and bottled
• Traditional method
• min 9 mo lees, though many growers extend
• permitted to commission cooperative/contract bottler to produce their Winzersekt so long as grapes/must/still fermenting must from growers own produce

Question 8

Classification: Vintage and Varietal Sekt

Answer 8

• must include 85% of vintage or variety

Question 9

Classifications (all)

Answer 9

Sekt
Deutscher Sekt
Sekt b.A
Winzersekt
Vintage
Varietal
Perlwein

Question 10

Important Trade Structures

Answer 10

• produced in huge volumes (Germany is the largest sparkling wine market in the world)
• 80% of demand satisfied by domestic production, supermarket wines, aggressive marketing
• low-end, price driven sparkling (4 euros) - half of all sales
• standard quality wines that retail up to 7 euros
• high quality sparkling wines, considerably higher prices, promising development in recent years (adding sparkling wine to portfolios)
• every bottle has 1.02 euro tax since 1902
• large businesses like Rotkappchen dominate production
• premium sekt becoming more popular from a very small base

Question 11

Classification: Perlwein

Answer 11

• 1-2.5 atm
• resurgence since early 1990’s
• marketed as Secco
• ideal aperitif - light, uncomplicated
• no wine tax, double digit millions in sales
• simple German wine or from quality region
• can be carbonated or tank method
• often sweeter than Sekt
• • Trocken (up to 35 g/L)
• • Halbtrocken (33-50 g/L)
• • Mild (50+ g/L)

Question 12

Producers

Answer 12

Sektellerei = “Sekt Factory”

Rotkappchen

• leading producer of sparkling wine
• Brands: Rotkappchen and Jules Mumm
• relatively high quality at low price (economy market)

Henkell and Co

• second largest producer
• Brands: Henkell Trocken and Deinhard
• annual production about half of Rotkappchen’s