German Ripeness Level
Recently at one of our Saturday Wine Tastings, I had a gentleman ask me about the type of German Riesling we were tasting. Unfortunately, for him, I did not have an answer. However, I was made aware that German wines are rated according to the ripeness of fruit - the higher the sugar content, the higher the quality of the wine. In a country with lots of bad weather (hail and frost) and challenging conditions (ex. steep, exposed vineyard slopes), it is easy to understand how this system came to be: ripe grapes (at least until global warming) were not easily achieved.
There are six ripeness levels in the German system (Pradikat) - with increasingly hard-to-pronounce names. The first level is Kabinett, which are the lightest and simplest wines. After that are the Spatlese wines (this is the first level of truly ripe grapes; these are sweet with a good acidity). Third are Auslese wines, made from bunches of grapes left on the vines after the Spatlese grapes have been picked. Then there are the Beernauslese wines, which are made only in great vintages of grapes left even longer on the vine. Also there are the rare Trockenbeernauslese wines, made from grapes that are shriveled like raisins from botrytis, the same noble rot that creates the dessert wine Sauternes. Finally the sixth type is Eiswein, wine made from botrytised grapes that actually freeze on the vine.