Help with German wine

What region? I don't know where Edesheim is. There's a Braun in Rheinhessen. Maybe Anders. Micheal, or someone has more info. As a gross generality, however, Gewürz is a lower acid grape, and as '99 was a somewhat low-acid vintage, I'd say drink now. Dale

Dale Williams Drop "damnspam" to reply

Hopefully Anders, Michael, or the others more knowledgable about German wines can be specific. I can't offer any firsthand knowledge. What region is this- I don't know a Edesheim. I think there's Braun in Rheinhessen. What I will say was that overall '99 tended to be a low-acid vintage. And as Gewürz tends to be a lower-acid grape than say Riesling, I'd aim for drinking sooner rather than later.

Dale

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Edesheim is in the Pfalz wine region of Germany. It is what is known as "the southern wine road" which runs from Neustadt to the French border at Schweigen. Ordensgut is the "grosslage" or larger collective vineyard sites surrounding Edesheim..

The Gewurztraminer grape has a rather spicy aroma and flavour, and can carry spicier and heavier foods. Spatlese means that the wine is of premium quality - a "pradikat" wine" or a wine which has special attributes. Pradikat also means that no sugar can be added (chaptalization). Spatlese means "late harvest" as the berries have been left on the vine to ripen for about a week longer than regular picking.

You did not mention whether the wine is halbtrocken or trocken - semi-dry or dry. Often, spatlese wines are good candidates for making into a semi-dry or dry style as the increased sugar levels in the berries will result in higher alcohol levels. If the wine is in the range of 12-13% alcohol, it will likely be a trocken, if it is in the range of 11-12% it will likely be a halbtrocken, and if it is in the range of 8-10% it will be a sweeter wine that would serve as a fine aperatif.

Hope this helps.

Wow. I didn't now that the alcohol % can be a telltale factor in a Germans sweetness level.

Thanks for the info.

Well, it's only a very rough indicator. More precisely, "Halbtrocken" and "Trocken" wines will *always* carry one of these designations on the label. The absence of one of these terms is a

M.

Edesheim is a village in southern central Rheinpfalz, an area west of the Rhine. The Ordensgut is the generic name for 12 vineyards in the surrounding area of Edesheim and neighboring villages, none of which carries any special distinction. This wine is probably a simple sweetish one for early drinking - but could be quite drinkable. Open soon and serve chilled. Anders

I kind of dissagree, the terms Trocken and Halbtrocken are not always used- the new terms for dry wines include Classic and Erstes Gewachs (First growth). I recently purchased a Carl Loewen Classic and it has %12 alc. If you are able to see the alcohol levels it is the best indicator of dryness. Also, wines from the Mosel tend to ripen more slowly so they tend to have lower alc levels at the same sweetness levels.I love German wines because of the endless number of sites and styles, let's try them all!

As Michael says, the decisive factor is the appearance of the words Trocken=dry or Halbtrocken=semi-dry on the label, indicating levels of residual sugar. Trocken will mean up to 7 grammes a litre of sugar, halbtrocken up to 17 or thereabouts (don't have the exact figures at hand). There is also another designation of a newer date, namely "feinherb" for the interval 17-25 gr/l. If the label does not include any of these words the wine is "lieblich" (roughly "lovable" or "charming") with normally 40-80 g/l (and the real sweet ones far more than that - but then we are talking Beerenauslese quality or higher).

Now, if only a part of the grape juice sugar is converted into alcohol, then you'll have a low-alcoholic wine rich in sugar, i.e. sweet - but you don't know how much there was in the first place, looking at the label... With the traditional classification of fine grape juice (Kabinett, Spätlese, Auslese and so on) you would normally be able to say something like: This is a Spätlese with 10% alcohol and therefore it must be semidry, this Spätlese has 8% and thus is sweet. Problem is only that today just about no one sells his wine under the correct class (declassifying) (it is easier to compete in a lower league... :-) and therefore it is hard to say for sure what ripeness the grapes for a particular wine had. Still, the alc.% *is* a guidance, albeit a rough one, for the three quality levels mentioned above. hth Anders

Accepted. But "Classic" and "Erstes Gewächs" (both concepts judged quite controversially, btw, in Germany) represent a very, very small part of Germany's wine production. "Classic", afaik would be wines that "taste dry" (but aren't legally). According to this article

only one of the wines the author(s) tasted really tasted dry.

"Erstes Gewächs" theoretically should represent the epitome of dry German wines, but once again, they simply didn't taste dry.

M.

As Micheal says, only a rough guide. But as pradikat level indicates a minimum must weight, and chaptalization is prohibited in a QmP wine, you're safe assuming a 8% ABV Spätlese is fairly sweet. Dale

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Hi Kenneth. I've checked the definitions: Erstes Gewächs is solely used for wine from registered vineyards in the Rheingau. This term was coined in 1999 and is only allowed for Riesling or Spätburgunder wines that satisfy a row of stringent requirements as to vineyard yield (less than 50Hl per hectare), manual harvesting (no machinery), sugar content (higher than normal) and other rules, among them a residual sugar of at least 100 grammes per liter for Beerenauslese and above... So an Erstes Gewachs may very well be a classic noble sweet wine...!

Classic on the other hand is a new, from 2000, designation for dry wines typical for an area, made from the 'classic' grape varieties for that area. (The Nahe allows 9 different grapes, the Rheingau only 2). There ar also requirements for ripeness of grapes, somewhat higher than for standard wines. The allowed residual sugar depends on acidity (less than acid value *

Anders

I'm aware of the Trocken = Dry, Halbtrocken = Half Dry

But I was more thinking of trying to figure out a Kabinett without buying it. :)

Hi Dale,

This Dedesheim is defintely in the Region of Pfalz "Suedpfalz". not far away from Neustadt an der Weinstrasse.

I think It is recommended to drink this wine now.

I 've drunken last week a 2001 Schweigener Sonnenberg Gewürztraminer Selection ("Grosser Preis DLG Extra" which means one of best Gewürztraminer of the year by the official Degustation from the German Ministary of Agriculture...) a bargain for 9 Euro!!! And I think one or two years more and it would be decrease of quality.... Best regards

I recently had a Kabinett with 12% alc. Of course it was trocken, but also far above the possible percentage for a Kabinett - and indeed it was an Auslese... :-) If we stick to the bottles without any 'Trocken' on the label, we may indeed find an alcohol from 8 to 9.5%. The range in sweetness is larger, however - as the wine might be a Spätlese in disguise... So you'll have anything from

Caution, "Edesheim" is not "Deidesheim" (although both are in the Palatinate).

M.