(Other articles in the “how to read a wine label” series)
How To Read A French Wine Label
How To Read An Italian Wine Label
How To Read A Spanish Wine Label
So many wine labels are so straightforward.
Many wines made with Chardonnay grapes simply say Chardonnay on the bottle.
That’s certainly the case with most California Chardonnays or Cabernet Sauvignons or other wines made with other grapes.
What you read is what you get.
Same goes for many wines from New Zealand, Australia and South Africa.
The labels are fairly straightforward.
But as I explained when I started writing this occasional series a few months ago, not all wine labels are created equal.
Some seem like hieroglyphics or hidden messages written without a secret decoder.
That’s certainly true for some wines particularly from France and Italy.
For people used to shopping for wine by the grape, it can challenging when faced with a wine from France’s Bordeaux or particularly Burgundy region, where the wines are labeled based on where the grapes come from, not what type of grapes were used to make the wine.
But personally, when it comes to the most challenging wine labels, the advanced expert ones that should have warning signs all over them, nothing beats many of the labels found on many Germany wines.
Part of it has to do with the language, which can be confusing to newcomers.
And while they have gotten slightly easier to read in recent years, there’s still so much room for error. And if you get it wrong, sometimes you can end up with a completely different wine than the one you planned on buying.
So without further ado, here’s some hopefully helpful advice for how to read a German wine label. Like the other wine labels I wrote about earlier this year, I’ll start from the top of the bottle and work our way down to the bottom, line by line. Hope you enjoy and hope this helps.
2019 Joh. Jos. Prum Wehlener Sonnenuhr Kabinett ($44.99 at Table & Vine in West Springfield)
Joh. Jos. Prum - This is the name of the winery. So far, so good, you’re thinking. The full name is Johann Josef Prum, the man who founded the winery in 1911 in Germany. But like many difficult ski trials or complex pieces of music, the fun’s just about the start.
2019 - Ok, maybe not just yet. Here again, it’s pretty straightforward. This the vintage of the wine, meaning the year the grapes were grown and harvested. Let me add, by the way, that 2019 is widely considered one of the best vintages in years for German white wines.
Wehlener Sonnenuhr - Now you see what I’m talking about. This isn’t the name of a grape or a type of wine. Like many wines from France’s Burgundy region, this is the name of a specific vineyard in Germany. Which part of Germany, you might ask? It doesn’t say on the main label in large print. For that information, you’ll have to look to the side of the bottle at the smaller label with small, fine print worthy of a legal disclaimer on prescription drug packaging.
Kabinett - This single word just might be the most important word on the entire wine label. This has to do with how dry or sweet the wine tastes. In this case, this particular wine is on the drier side because it’s a “kabinett,” which is German for “cabinet,” which has absolutely nothing to do with grapes or wine or how the wine even tastes. Instead, from what I can gather, the name “kabinett” means the wine should be set aside in a cabinet. This was probably some German winemakers idea of a joke.
But in all seriousness, make sure to pay close attention to this single word or other single words like this one on the label. That’s because wines made with grapes from the exact same vineyard - in this case, Wehlener Sonnenuhr - can taste dramatically different from one bottle to another. The difference is when the grapes were harvested. The longer the grapes are left on the vine, the sweeter the wine tastes.
So if you see “Kabinett” on a German white wine label, this wine will be on the drier side. Progressively sweeter wines (meaning wines made with grapes harvested later) include:
- Spatlese (which means “late harvest”)
- Auslese (which means “select harvest” and which is even sweeter and pretty much a dessert wine)
- Beerenauslese (which means “berry select harvest” and which is even sweeter and definitely a dessert wine)
- Trockenbeerenauslese (which means “dry berry select harvest” and which is a very rare, very sweet, delightful dessert wine)
Erzeugerabfullung - This is the first line on the smaller side label to the left of the main wine label. Here’s where the German labels really start to get fun. This is one of those German words that really means several different words all crammed together to form one, hard-to-pronounce word. (I know. I took four years of high school German.) “Erzeugerabfullung” simply means “Producer bottling.” There, that was easy, or as they say in German, “Ezschnauttsenfrauengleissich.”
Weingut - This next line’s fairly straightforward. “Weingut” simply means “winery.”
Joh. Jos. Prum - Just in case you weren’t sure you made this wine, here’s the name of the winery a second time, just for kicks.
D-54470 Wehlen/Mosel - Ah, how romantic. Actually, this line is very practical and straightforward. It’s the address for the winery. The D stands for “Deutschland,” which is German for Germany. Wehlen is the name of the village. Mosel is the name of the larger region in Germany where Wehlen is located.
V.D.P. - This next line is an acronym for “Verband Deutscher Pradikatsweinguter,” which is the name of a German trade organization that promotes certain, higher-quality wineries in Germany.
Product of Germany, Contains Sulphites, Enthalt Sulfite - Ja ja, we know, we know. Schnell. Schnell.
Mosel - This is the name of the larger wine region in Germany where this wine comes from. It’s also one of the best wine regions in the world, particularly when it comes to fragrant, fascinating white wines with character and charisma. There’s nothing quite like a dry or even slightly sweet white wine from Germany’s Mosel region. And Joh. Jos. Prum is one of the best producers of white wines from the Mosel region.
Riesling - Finally, another straightforward line that makes sense to most people. Riesling is the name of the grape used to make this wine. And again, when it comes to Riesling wines, Germany’s Mosel region reigns supreme.
Pradikatswein - Just when you thought you’d made it through the toughest part of the wine label, you get to this last line on the bottle. “Pradikatswein” is German for “Pradikatswein,” according to Google translate. See, that was easy. But really, what this word really has to do with is the sweetness classification we were talking about earlier, the line where you’ll often find “Kabinett” or “Spatlese” or “Auslese.” This classification system has to mainly do with when the grapes are harvested to make the wine. Again, the later the grapes are harvested, the higher the sugar content in the grapes and therefore the sweeter the wine.
So hope that all makes sense and hope you’re able to enjoy some delicious, German white wine sometime soon.
Prost!
Wine Press by Ken Ross appears on Masslive.com every Monday and in The Republican’s weekend section every Thursday.
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April 06, 2021 at 01:02AM
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