Winecast: German Wine Quality Classification, Part I

[@maximedumesnil5525]

I have been watching your great videos on KZbin for few years. As an educator myself, I find your pedagogical approach to wine STELLAR. Merci/Thanks !

[@rebecapinhas4644]

You make the complicated things so understandable, that's a gift!

[@winewithtuanni]

I agree.

[@philiphamilton426]

Hello to you, TUWC. I have been following your website and your videos for a couple of years now and have never given you any feedback. I am hosting a wine tasting at my home on June 21 (I always have one on the summer solstace). We have a wine guzzling group that has been going on for 40 years now. We are based in Ottawa, Canada and call ourselves the 'Brethren of the Vine'.. LOL Anyway, I am doing a tasting of German wines and have been able to procure a trio of GGs - enirely new to me and to my group. Your winecasts have beautifully elucidated the 'newer' classification of German wines. I have always been a great fan of German wines for many reasons - not the least of which is the low alcohol and their potential for beautiful acidity and balance. Than you so very much for all of your winecasts - you are my go-to reference guy. You have clearly put a great deal of time and effort into each and every one.

[@comesahorseman]

Stopped by my local premium wine shop this morning, to check out the German Rieslings available. Got light-headed from the prices on the bottles! Went home with a couple of Fingers Lakes Rieslings that were more realistically priced (my opinion); we will see how they do!

[@amcbreeze]

I love your winecasts! Such an amazing job. I am studying for my WSET Level 3 and these help me understand the material that little bit more. Thank you!

[@TheUnknownWinecaster]

Thank you, I'm glad to hear that. It's great to get material that you're trying to master in different formats, so I'm glad these casts are helpful that way. Cheers!

[@mackenziemorgan5179]

A few months out until WSET 3 and this video is a gem. I think I'll need to watch it about five more times, but I think I finally understand it.

[@TheUnknownWinecaster]

Please feel free to watch it as often as you like -- I always love a boost to my view count! More seriously, thank you for watching and for commenting. I'm glad the video was helpful, and I hope the others are, too. Cheers!

[@SwedeMetalGuy]

Very helpful! 2 months left til my wset 3 exam. This helps a lot!

[@TheUnknownWinecaster]

Glad to hear! Best of luck on the exam!

[@frenchiexpink]

Thank you, this is very informative and it made me realise that the wine classification we use in Czech Republic derives from the German one which makes sense considering the fact that we were under their influence for many years.

[@TheUnknownWinecaster]

Thanks for the comment and for watching. Czech wines are of great interest to me. The few I've had have been fantastic!

[@nicomeier8098]

"I don;t want to name any names. France". LOL . I live in The Netherlands and have been travelling to Germany to buy wines for over three decades. My take on the German wine laws: Quality (potential) based on sugar level/ripeness of grapes made sense, 40 - 70 years ago. Back in the day when the growers had a hard time to grow ripe grapes. Since then a lot has changed, the climate has gotten warmer and techniques for growing grapes have evolved a lot as well. . The big downside of the sugar level regulations was and is that the focus is on the ripeness of the grapes, and for some growers that is the only thing that counts. If their grapes have enough sugar they can make a Spätlese or Auslese and sell it for a lot more money than a humble QBA. . QBA wines of the really good growers (their "house-wines") however are way, way better then the run of the mill Spät- or Auslese from the not so good growers. This is a sure sign that the old regulations have become obsolete and should be abandoned. . So, where do they need to go? More focus on actual quality then on sugar content! If you are after quality forget about Landwein, go to a really good growers and start tasting their wines. Don't focus on what's on the label (other then the name of the really good grower) but on what is in the bottle. . As far as the classifications with Kabinett, Spätlese, Auslese, Beerenauslese, Trockenbeerenauslese and EIswein, the first three in trocken, halbtrocken, feinherb and medium to very sweet, that is way too complicated. . My idea: * Communal wine, i.e. "Trittenheimer" or "Brauneberger" or Niersteiner". In German: Ortswein. Dry or off-dry. Basic (but good!) quality. * Wines with a specific vineyard on the label, i.e. Trittenheimer Apotheke. * Spätlese - dry, off-dry or with noticeable, but not overwhelming sweetness. * Auslese - with noticeable sweetness, in which case excellent as aperitif. * Grosses Gewächs (Grand Cru) - dry, but with a tiny bit of residual sugar to balance the acidity. This is the best dry wine the grower makes, intended to accompany a great dish, and able to age substantially. * Desert wines: Beerenauslese, Trockenbeerenauslese, EIswein. Wines with a pronounced sweetness, and often with a very high but hard to notice acidity level. The well made ones can age for decades, gaining complexity. . What NOT to produce: VERY sweet Kabinett wines! Kabinett should be light in alcohol, elegant and "easy" to drink. Pure Enjoyment, with or without the company of food. I have seen too many very sweet Kabinett wines that in fact were "downgraded" Auslese wines. Yak! This should be forbidden!! . To anyone that read as far as this: thank you for your patience and I hope it will be off any help to you. Enjoy the fine wines of Germany, they are the best Rieslings in the whole world!

[@faringolo]

Extremely helpful for my wset3 exam next week. Now everything (?) makes sense.

[@TheUnknownWinecaster]

Happy to hear the video(s) have been helpful. Best of luck on the WSET!

[@billjohnson1277]

Awesome video, great job, thank you so very much...just one thing...prädikat in english is literally predicate. So there is a predilection for, but not a promise therein...a very German way of avoiding responsibility

[@evelinar.1653]

Hei, thank you for concrete information about clasification. Could you please, help me to understand what is 6 designated attributes of grape ripeness? how they they deciding that this wine is pradikat from ripeness?

[@geotropa1043]

Decisión about the attribute each wine will get is basically made on the basis of its natural sugar-content. The sugar is messured before fermentation, when the wine-to-be is still in it's juice-state.

[@kawafan04]

Great and so helpful!

[@linglingstar]

Check the new VDP System in Germany. Created by the 200 top Vinyards of Germany. It really simplifies alot yet offers great quality. Its a parallel system but private. Not by law

[@linglingstar]

Ah never nind just saw part 2 of your video :-)

[@sabnisswa]

What does Anbaugebiete mean. Is it a general term for the wine growing region?

[@TheUnknownWinecaster]

+Swapnil Sabnis. Great question! An Anbaugebiet (sing.) is a wine region demarcated for the purposes of making wine at the gU/PDO level (Qualitätswein and Prädikatswein). So, it's comparable to a large regional AOC in France, like Bordeaux. If a winemaker wants to make a gU level wine, apart from grape ripeness, she just needs to make sure that all of the grapes for that wine come from one of 13 Anbaugebiete (plu. -- German plurals are confusing, I know), the same way that a French winemaker would need to make sure that all of the grapes for the Bordeaux he wanted to make came from within the boundaries of AOC Bordeaux. Anbaugebiete are further subdivided into smaller subareas (to be covered in part II) that can be used on the label, assuming that the grapes all came from that subarea, rather than from all over the Anbaugebiet. These smaller subareas are comparable to the sub-AOC's in a larger regional AOC (e.g., Haut-Médoc or Margaux in Bordeaux) EXCEPT that they don't have any additional standards/requirements for wine making. They're just an indication that all of the grapes came from a specific place within the Anbaugebiet. The way Germans represent all of this on wine labels, though, is a pretty byzantine affair, and hopefully part II will clear that up. Thanks again for the question. It's great feedback that helps me think about how to tackle part II.

[@mohanv6458]

+The Unknown Winecaster Thanks for the detailed explanation. But what is the significance of mentioning the specific sub-region on the label, if there isn't a specific standard of quality associated with it? One can expect a certain standard from say, a wine from the Haut-Medoc sub region of the Bordeaux AOC, because there are laws and regulations demand that it be so. Whereas it appears that German wines don't have that much of an obligation to follow that kind of system. Is it just a matter of making it seem more appealing to the customer then? To condense - does it denote higher quality of wine if the producer mentions the specific sub region on the label, or is it solely the choice of the winemaker to include it as a way of one-upping the competition? I say this in the context of something like the word "reserve", which only has legal binding in a few countries (Spain and Italy come to mind). A lot of producers here in India have "reserve" wines themselves, but since there's no stringent rules, they're free to add the word, even if they don't actually barrel age the wines at all. So as I understand it, a gU level wine made from grapes from a sub-region of a single Anbaugebiet wouldn't necessarily be of much higher quality than a wine made with grapes sourced from all over that single region - by law, if not in practice. Please clarify. And sorry for the long-winded comment. 😅

[@TheUnknownWinecaster]

+Mohan Vasudevan. Thanks for the question. I'll be addressing these issues in Part II of the German cast, but I appreciate the opportunity to think through this stuff by addressing your questions. With reference to your first question about "the significance of mentioning the specific sub-region on the label, if there isn't a specific standard of quality associated with it," generally speaking, the smaller a geographic designation is, the more prestigious it is likely to be whether or not it has more specific requirements associated with it than a larger area. The theory behind this is that a smaller designation will have a more homogeneous and consistent terroir and will produce grapes with greater uniqueness than what you'd find in a larger area. Both the German system and the American AVA system follow this model. An important criticism of the German and American systems, though, is that while this may be generally true, there are lots of small vineyard sites that aren't inherently more impressive just for being smaller than a larger area. The American system tries to address this issue, at least, by attempting to define its viticultural areas based on specific geographic features and climate, but the smaller areas of the German system were created more for administrative reasons than with terroir in mind and this approach was consistent with the anti-elitist bent that the 1971 law had to it. So, there's something to your point that "wine made from grapes from a sub-region of a single Anbaugebiet wouldn't necessarily be of ... higher quality than" wine made from grapes from all over the Anbaugebiet. It's important to note that some of the smallest German areas, called Einzellagen, are very highly regarded for their terroirs and informed consumers can benefit from seeing them identified on the label, but it's equally important to note that the current German system does nothing to help consumers know the difference between a highly regarded Einzellage and any other one. The burden is entirely on the consumer to identify the quality of a specific area. This is why, as you'll see in part II, private groups in Germany like the VDP have developed classification systems for their members vineyards based on terroir that consumers can instantly recognize from the label. I hope my reply was helpful and not too long-winded. Thanks again for the questions and feel free to ask more! Cheers!

[@mohanv6458]

+The Unknown Winecaster Very illuminating. Both Swapnil and I eagerly looking forward to Part II. I'm just glad to know that this is helping you as much it's helping us.

[@mcwine18]

God dammit... now that you said that German Reisling makes the best ice wine.. I really regret not buying or trying some Reisling ice wine when you told me to check out Chateau Ste. Michelle :( Oh it hurts.. SO much.. my favorite white grape and I like ice wines?!.. ohhh the regret...

[@sms9106]

Good Info

[@TheUnknownWinecaster]

Thanks and thanks for watching! Cheers!

[@katiadobbert7306]

I don't want to name any names.. FRANCE!!

[@TheUnknownWinecaster]

😇

[@roviperezcruz2448]

💎

[@mohanv6458]

Great video. German quality classification is not easy. :( One question - I hear that you pronounced "wein" with a "v" throughout - is that the way it is, or is it open to debate?

[@TheUnknownWinecaster]

+Mohan Vasudevan. I'm not a native speaker and am relying on a couple of years of German at university for my pronunciations, but I'm pretty confident that pronouncing German "w" as English "v" (so "wein" comes out as "vine") is standard. That said, when it comes to moving words from one linguistic environment into another context can be king, and I've been in settings where English speakers were perfectly comfortable saying something that sounded like "Qualitäts-wine" and no one cared; however, about as often as not there will be someone in the room who will make it a point to start the next sentence with, "you know, it's actually pronounced...." Language can be such a minefield. Thanks for the question!

[@rachaelhorn1360]

Thanks for this...and for making your imaginary winemaker a female! I am studying for my WSET 3, AND a winemaker..the pronoun is refreshing!

[@TheUnknownWinecaster]

Thank you for taking the time to watch and comment. I'm glad you found the video helpful and as for the gender of my fictive vintners, I'm just trying to keep things representative. I'm glad my effort was noticed. Cheers!