1976 Auslese

Not too long ago, our friends shared with us this 1976 Auslese. Being 37 years old, the label had seen better days, but the wine inside was still alive and drinking well. The dessert of homemade apple pie paired admirably with the Auslese. Drinking the Auslese prompted a lively discussion regarding the classification system of wine in Germany. In thumbing through Kevin Zraly's Windows on the World Complete Wine Course, I came upon an excellent explanation of the various categories of German wines.¹

According to the German Law which went into effect in 1971, German wines can fall into two main categories:

• Tafelwein or table wine
• Qualitätswein or quality wine of which there are two kinds:
(1) Qualitätswein bestimmter Anbaugebite (QbA): QbA is a wine that comes from one of the 13 specified regions
(2) Qualitätswein mit Prädikat (QmP): QmP is a quality wine with distinction. It cannot be chaptalized. There are 5 levels of QmP wines and one way to visualize the increase in quality of the QmP wines is to depict it in a pyramid.

The above pyramid represents the increase in quality as you get toward the top. Because the QmP wines cannot be chaptalized (addition of sugar), the grapes in various categories are a reflection of the increase in sugar content.

• Spätlese is a wine made from late harvested grapes
• Auslese is made from grapes that are selectively picked from ripe bunches
• Beerenauslese is made from individually selected grapes from ripe bunches
• Trochenbeerenauslese is made from trochen or dried grapes and is likely to taste raisinated

Beerenaulese and Trochenbeerenauslese usually come from the Rhein or the Mosel and the best are made from the Riesling grape.
References:
1. Kevin Zraly, Windows on the World Complete Wine Course, 2009 Edition, Sterling Publishing, pg. 87-89.
2. UC Davis Online Course, Introduction to Winemaking, 092VID251.