German Wine Law

What is German Wine Law ?
Can anybody give me some information about German Wine Law ?

Very good question, some of us here are still trying to figure the law/s out . A couple of experts will be along for sure, Tim and David.
I could help but it is all too complicated, stay tuned Teh. Are you a big fan of German wines?

I'm no expert, Bob. In my view, it's not the law, though imperfect, which is the problem in understanding German labels. It is all the exceptions to the law practised by VDP and others which make the picture so confusing . The law provides more information about the bottle contents than any other labelling system, my main criticism being its reliance on must weight (öchsle) as a quality criterion. I'll leave it to David to describe the main features of the law and it would be helpful for everyone less expert than him if he could show a way through the labyrinth of exception and special labellings.

[David M. Bueker]

It will take a little digging but I posted a German Wine Primer a few years back. Are there specific aspects of the law you are curious about?

What is German Wine Law ?
Can anybody give me some information about German Wine Law ?

Did google not work?

[David M. Bueker]

Of course Google worked. Here we are!

[David M. Bueker]

Here's an older topic I did on the German system of pradikats. It's a good start on a large portion of German Wine Law.

viewtopic.php?f=3&t=9885

[Robin Garr]

What is German Wine Law ?
Can anybody give me some information about German Wine Law ?

Did google not work?

Shall we welcome our newly arrived participant?

Here's an older topic I did on the German system of pradikats. It's a good start on a large portion of German Wine Law.

viewtopic.php?f=3&t=9885

David, that explanation of the wine law is excellent but you made an important aside -

"(As an aside, there have been some more recent additions with the advent of Grosses Gewächs, Erste Lage, Selection & Classic labeling rules, but that is another set of rules for another post.)"

Did you ever make that other post?

Since 2007 when you wrote that primer, that aside has become even more important to the extent that more German estates no longer use the QmP system for their "best" wines which are mostly dry and only bow to the law by using the much less informative QbA rules. The important VDP organisation has set up a parallel labelling system which is described here http://www.vdp.de/en/home/. As an example the former Ruppertsberger Gaisböhl Riesling Spätlese trocken is now labelled simply Gaisböhl; this may look like a simplification but in fact it says a lot less about the wine and requires a whole lot of new learning in order to understand.

That is not all. Some producers not in the VDP, e.g. von Schubert, are now altering their labelling for some of their drier wines and are using terms like "Superior" and "Fusion", which beg definition. And then there are "Selection", "Classic"......

Somewhere I saw a sort of pie chart which sought to clarify the relationship between the 1971 law labelling and the new systems but I can no longer find it.

Welcome to Teh Wang-Cing!!

PS Since writing the above, I have spent more time perusing the VDP link. It is a very thorough document but does not lead itself to easy understanding. The classification and by implication the labelling consequences are explained at length in this more detailed link http://www.vdp.de/fileadmin/user_upload ... 0PRINT.pdf . There is even pyramid, if not pie, chart.

[David M. Bueker]

I have written some other stuff, but not in such concise fashion. Perhaps I should work on that.

I have written some other stuff, but not in such concise fashion. Perhaps I should work on that.

It would be great if you could do that, David. If you manage a clear concise explanation of the system(s), you should copyright it .

[Robin Garr]

It would be great if you could do that, David. If you manage a clear concise explanation of the system(s), you should copyright it .

Second the emotion!

[David M. Bueker]

Things got even more complicated in the 2014 vintage when the use of old vineyard parcel names came back into use.

Great discussion but expected more ranting from Tim . I did hint to Tim that there was this posting the other day, he was probably still in bed when I found it .

[David M. Bueker]

This post was just made this afternoon Bob.

Great discussion but expected more ranting from Tim . I did hint to Tim that there was this posting the other day, he was probably still in bed when I found it .

Bob, I am trying to restrain myself since I got my fingers rapped a couple of times on the UK board from both ends of the opinion spectrum. However, that was a discussion about politics where feelings run high .

[David M. Bueker]

FYI-I have started writing the next installment.

Very good question, some of us here are still trying to figure the law/s out . A couple of experts will be along for sure, Tim and David.
I could help but it is all too complicated, stay tuned Teh. Are you a big fan of German wines?

I'm not a big fan of German wines , this is one of my report question . I'm currently study beverage studies .

Here's an older topic I did on the German system of pradikats. It's a good start on a large portion of German Wine Law.

viewtopic.php?f=3&t=9885

Thanks for giving me so much information .

Hi,

this may look like a simplification but in fact it says a lot less about the wine and requires a whole lot of new learning in order to understand.

That is not all. Some producers not in the VDP, e.g. von Schubert, are now altering their labelling for some of their drier wines and are using terms like "Superior" and "Fusion", which beg definition. And then there are "Selection", "Classic"......

The basic ideas of the VDP rules are quite simple (and it is good to do life long learning) :

Reserve the labels Kabinett, Spätlese and Auslese for sweet wines.

For the trocken wines use a pyramid like Burgundy:

Großes Gewächs - Grand Cru
Erstes Gewächs - Premier Cru
Ortswein - Village wine
Gutswein - Estate wine

If you make a "Großes Gewächs" from a vinyard you are not allowed to make a second trocken wine, say a Kabinett trocken, from that "Cru".

I think that simplifies things. According to the old law I always had to look at the alcohol contents to guess whether a wine is trocken or sweet. Some labeled their trocken as trocken and some did not (do not).

Von Schubert does his own thing, yes. The name "Fusion" probably is meant as a warning. It is oaked Riesling.

Winfried

Hi,


Von Schubert does his own thing, yes. The name "Fusion" probably is meant as a warning. It is oaked Riesling.

Winfried

Ugh! For such a conservative seeming gentleman (I use the word deliberately) von Schubert seems to be branching out . I read somewhere that he is uprooting some of the Riesling vines in Abtsberg and is replacing them with Pinot Noir. An interesting experiment but, if true, is it right to do that in one of the world's finest Riesling vineyards?

Thanks for the précis on VDP rules; much easier to read than the VDP's own website. I also look forward to what David is writing.

I recently bought a nicely priced and nicely drinking Ruppertsberger Riesling trocken Pfärit from Bürklin-Wolf, which tells me most of what I want to know, and see on the back label VDP Ortswein, which I would prefer to see on the front but at least it is there. Staying with Gaisböhl there is nothing else on the front label other than GC (a bit of francophile coquetry for GG?) and sometimes "R", which could mean either Ruppertsberg or Riesling, but I expect the back label clarifies that. (All mine has disappeared down the gullet so I can't check.) I see that Dönnhoff puts Dellchen Riesling GG on the front label, which gives information about the grape variety prominently. (That is one better than the Burgundians but they only have one variety each of red and white grapes to play with.) More important is that the sellers listing such wines should make clear the grape variety and the VDP status; AFAIK the former is usually shown but not the latter unless it is GG.

I still haven't put in that mail order for German Riesling trocken but I guess I'll have to await the autumn as warmer weather is now forecast.

[David M. Bueker]

Indeed Grunhaus already has that Pinot Noir planted and in production. They also do Pinot Blanc, because the world needs more bland, dry white wine.

thanks David and Win Fried for well-written concise explanations

Indeed Grunhaus already has that Pinot Noir planted and in production. They also do Pinot Blanc, because the world needs more bland, dry white wine.

Hi,

I had some Blaufränkisch from the Pettenthal recently. The vintner sais that due to the climate change some parcels get too hot to grow Riesling there anymore. Actually, they engrafted Blaufränkisch on the old Riesling vines.

I think von Schubert's reason to plant Pinot Noir in a former Riesling site might be the same.

You can use google translate and read

http://www.falstaff.de/weinartikel/der- ... 10342.html

Best

Winfried