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Story originally printed in the Winona Daily News or online at www.winonadailynews.com

Published - Friday, May 16, 2008

Wine Wise: Get to know Germanic wines

By John Breitlow

Here is my annual celebration of German white wines whose mellow, springtime styling makes me think of May as “German Wine Month.”

Germanic wines have charmed me ever since I served behind the Iron Curtain with U.S. Forces in Austria more than 50 years ago, so I have some grasp of Germany’s complex viniculture and the daunting prolixity of German wine labels.

German and Austrian vintners have enjoyed six consecutive superior vintages starting with their perhaps best-ever wines of 2001. Many of Germany’s lighter white wines are available locally, and many are good values.

White Riesling (REE-sling) — Germany’s leading winegrape variety — has long ranked among the world’s finest. German vintners make a complex, structured set of wine styles from light, easy cocktail and dinner wines to profound, world-class dessert wines with tongue-twisting descriptive names.

Official German wine categories and labels are very precise but, even if you understand German, their complexities can be daunting. I hope the following helps you through the system, because the wines are definitely worth the effort.

German wine laws prescribe three basic levels of sugar in the “must” (juice and crushed grapes ready to be fermented). The lowest sugar-levels yields everyday Tafelwein (table wine) rarely seen in the U.S.

Most German wines exported to the U.S. tend to be inexpensive, OK-quality, everyday quaffs simply called Qualitätswein (Kvah-lee-TATES-vine). Better vintages (such as 2001-06) yield lots of medium-grade, affordably priced Rieslings called Qualitäts-wein bestimmer Anbaugebiete or QbA (quality wine from a designated producing region).

Ordinary “QbA” wines often are chaptalized: Sugar can legally be added to the fermenting “must” to raise alcohol and sweetness levels — a process prohibited by law for premium wines in most wine-producing nations, including Germany.

The best class of Germanic wines are designated Qualitätswein mit Prädikat (quality wine with special/ designated character); the most abundant Prädikat (Pray-dee-COT) styles are labeled Kabinett, Spätlese and Auslese.

Typically light and refreshing Kabinett (Kah-bee-NET) wines are my personal preference for the best combination of quality and value; they tend to be dry or off-dry with delicate fruit and fragrances, and make ideal apéritifs as well as dinner wines.

Multi-purpose Spätlese (shPayt-LAY-zuh) (literally “late harvest”) wines are typically fuller, more intense and juicy, riper and richer. A few food-friendly dinner wines are sometimes also identified as Trocken (dry) or Halbtrocken (nearly dry).

Rich complex Auslese (OWSE-Lay-zuh) wines are made from select bunches of late-harvest, sometimes raisiny and concentrated (“botrytised”) grapes; some Auslesen wines are sweet enough to be dessert wines.

Next week, I hope to clarify some of the daunting, fey and occasionally ambiguous system of place-names that identify where certain German wines are grown and/or vinted. Auf Wiedersehen!

John Breitlow is a retired Winona State University speech professor who began learning about good wine in the 1950s while serving in Vienna, Austria, with U.S. armed forces.