Dec 17 2008
Don´t go cheap on high Prädikat status wines
I got the leaflet from one of the supermarkets in my hand, which advertised wine, and here you go with: German Eiswein (Ice wine) and the Beerenauslese (BA) for less then 5 EUR, thats an effort I said.
I was earlier stunned by the sparkling mineral water prices of one particular brand a crate (12 bottles of 0.75, 9 litre in total) of it costs 2.05 EUR and now the Beerenauslese is going for 3.99 EUR and the Eiswein for 4.99 EUR both (halves) 0.375 l bottles. I said to myself I have to buy it and if it´s good I´m going to buy a truck full of it and sell it either in abroad.
On the other hand I thought might not the best deal, under the motto, you get what you pay, if such a high quality wine and usually rather not cheap wine sells for this price there has to be some drawback. And so it was, I mean it was disappointing but probably worth the money (only 4 EUR!!!), and yet I would rather dismiss such an attempt to produce BA or Eiswein -which is generally if you pay the price a great experience- in the budget category. Its simple ruining the reputation, at least it did it in this case. But how in earth can you produce something for such a low price when you have to follow the wine law?
By law Beerenauslese has to be have a Prädikats Status (Q.m.P.) come from one of the 13 wine growing regions, from over ripe berries attacked by noble rot, botrytis and must be therefore selected by hand. No chaptalization but also no süssreserve (unfermented grape juice to increase “non natural sweetness”) is allowed. It has to have a minimum of 110° Oe (but its usually higher everything from 125° Oe) in Austria the minimum level is 25°KMW.
Similar terms exist for Eiswein, with the difference to Beerenauslese that there is no botrytis in action but frozen grapes (on the vine). Hence the concentration of the sugar levels occur as the water freezes in the berries, picking takes places usually in the early morning hours, but only if the temperatures are -8 °C and pressing happens immediately after picking. The grapes have to freeze on the vine, hence freezing in freezers or cryo-extraction is not allowed. It usually lacks a bit of the complexity to the botrytized counterpart wines yet is very refreshing and in Germany it must have the same Oechsle then Beerenauslese.
Summary
Just one sentence: High quality sweet wines have their price.