German Wines and Their Fine Distinctions

So you are a lover of fine white German wines, you say? Well do you know the difference between DTW, QbA and QmP? Of course you don't. These are German legal acronyms for

Deutscher Tafelwein (German table wine),
Qualitätswein bestimmter Anbaugebiet (a quality wine of an approved region) and
Qualitätswein mit Prädikat (a quality wine of distinction).

And please don't feel bad about not having known this. Most Germans don't know the meanings of these classifications, either.

Most German wine drinkers do, however. And although German table wines are prima and German QbA wines are practically always wunderbar, the wines that you (and I) will most likely be interested in tasting are the ones classified under the QmP classification.

The QmP label guarantees a quality wine with attributes that wines under the QbA label cannot claim to have. QmP wines cannot have any sugar added to them, for instance. They must also be a so-called Erzeugerabfüllung, an estate-bottled wine. They are also only permitted to come from certain specific wine-growing districts.

The QmP wines are then broken down into five distinct subcategories, all of which are based upon on the ascending level of a grape variety's ripeness and sweetness. This also has a direct relationship upon the price of the wine, by the way. These five categories, all determined by German wine laws and broken down from the lowest to the highest concentration of sugar, are called Kabinett, Spätlese, Auslese, Beerenauslese and Trockenberrenauslese. Germany's ever-popular Eiswein is also considered to be a QmP wine but actually falls into a category all by itself.

Kabinett wines have to contain a minimum amount of natural sugar, the lowest amount among the five categories, and usually have roughly 20 percent of the so-called sugar weight. Depending upon the region and the variety, and the Jahrgang (year) of course, these wines can nevertheless be of excellent quality and can easily compete with their more expensive cousins - they just tend to be the driest and the least expensive.