German QBA question

Hi gang,

With the dollar taking a beating I am always searching out the best values from Germany. I have recently been drinking alot of QBA's.
The question is...are all QBA wines chapitalized (sp?). With the recent vintages with Kabinetts tasting like
Spatleses would the QBA's need to be artifically sweetened?

Thanks
Michael

[David M. Bueker]

QbAs can be chaptalized. Chaptalization is not done to sweeten a wine but to enhance its body by giving more sugar for yeast to convert to alcohol. Most QbA (the normal kind - not these super cuvees that get labeled QbA) is also sweetened with sussreserve, so the sweetness has nothing to do with the chaptalization.

A slightly different question: Is Chaptalisation common for sweet QBAs? I'd be a bit surprised if they could not normally achieve 8% or so without added suger - even in Germany. OTOH I suppose that for the really low-end stuff the economics might swing in favour of safe early harvesting and adding sugar.

[David M. Bueker]

A slightly different question: Is Chaptalisation common for sweet QBAs? I'd be a bit surprised if they could not normally achieve 8% or so without added suger - even in Germany. OTOH I suppose that for the really low-end stuff the economics might swing in favour of safe early harvesting and adding sugar.

It's much more complicated than that. I was trying to give a quick answer with limited time, and a lot of the details are more important than the general answer.

How common is it? Nobody really knows for sure as there is no survey. But I can tell you that one of the top QbA sellers in the USA (Leitz Deagonstone) was chaptalized in several vintages (not 2007 by the way) to ensure that when the fermentation stopped on its own there would still be some residual sugar left in the wine. In essentially all vintages from 2001-2006 the Dragonstone was spatlese level in terms of must weight, and Johannes used chaptalization to tweak it a little to where he wanted it. Now the Germans actually have an available term for this kind of wine (chaptalized juice of pradikat quality): hochgewachs. It's such an awful word that it was rarely used, but I can tell you that I have had some hochgewachs bottlings of over 15 years of age that were just delightful, so judge based on what's in the glass, not any philosophical perceptions.

It's not just the low end stuff where this gets done.

Ah - I'd been assuming that chaptalised wines were required to be fermented dry. So you can sweeten with sugar by adding it BEFORE fermentation, but not after?

[David M. Bueker]

Ah - I'd been assuming that chaptalised wines were required to be fermented dry. So you can sweeten with sugar by adding it BEFORE fermentation, but not after?

Chaptalized wines do not have to ferment to dryness. As for the sweetening issue - you can utilize sugar for chaptalization, but sweetening after fermentation (for qualitatswein) is done with sussreserve not sugar.

David,
I guess I was misinformed on the practice of chapitalization. I always thought it was the addition of sugar at fermentation to bring up potential alcohol for under ripe grapes, not after. When I worked in a winery in the 80's we used the suss reserve method (back blending) to sweeten up a fermented dry wine (Riesling). I never thought of that as chapitalization.....learn something new everyday.
BTW, I love the Dragonstone!

thanks
Michael

Michael - you were right the first time, and I don't see that David has said anything to the contrary. Sugar is added BEFORE formentation, but if the wine is not fermented dry that sugar will also contribute to the final sweetness of the wine. Anything added (to Qualitätswein) after fermentation must be Sußreserve.

[David M. Bueker]

Steve - that's my understanding.

Hi gang,

With the dollar taking a beating I am always searching out the best values from Germany. I have recently been drinking alot of QBA's.
The question is...are all QBA wines chapitalized (sp?). With the recent vintages with Kabinetts tasting like
Spatleses would the QBA's need to be artifically sweetened?

Thanks
Michael

Michael, why QBA's? Kabinett wines are usually much better than QBAs, never chaptalized and they don't cost so much more. Your thoughts?

Michael, why QBA's? Kabinett wines are usually much better than QBAs, never chaptalized and they don't cost so much more. Your thoughts?

Dieter, I'm (obviously) not Michael, but here's my answer: It's hard to find a true Kabinett in these years of Global Warming, so I look to QbAs for lighter wines of greater finesse; I also have watched the precipitous decline of the dollar vs. the Euro drive up the prices of my favorite wines by as much as a factor of 2 in recent years and QbAs now sell for what I used to buy Kabinett and Spätlesen.

Mark Lipton

It's hard to find a true Kabinett in these years of Global Warming, so I look to QbAs for lighter wines of greater finesse

Mark, you are right. It's good news that 2007 is a good vintage for typical Kabinett. I would especially recommend:
http://www.weiser-kuenstler.de/index2e.html
http://www.weingut-vollenweider.de/root_en/portal.htm
In my experience the QbAs are always heavier due to more alcohol than Kabinett wines.

Mark,
I could not have put that better.
Dieter,
The prices for good to great label Kabinetts here in Oregon off the shelf are always over $20 USD.
2005 Maximin Grunhauser Herrenberg $24.50
2004 - 2005 JJ Prum (no vineyard designation) $25.00
2006 JJ Christoffel Erben Urziger Wurztgarten $25.00
2006 JJ Christoffel Erben Erdener Treppchen $26.00
I could go on
We get a few $20 Kabinetts
2006 Wagner Saarburger Rausch $16.00
2006 Mathias Kinheimer Rosenberg $19.00
2002 Wagner Schmitt Maximiner Herrenberg $20.00
The QBA's I have been enjoying have been much cheaper
2006 Lietz Dragonstone $14.50
1999 Kesselstaat Scharzhofberger $17.00 (long gone)
2006 Pazen Riesling $12.00
2006 St Urbans-hof Riesling $14.00
All very nice quaffing wines. For everyday wines that I enjoy the QBA's fit into my pocketbook.

Thanks
Michael

[David M. Bueker]

I sincerely beg to differ about 2007 being a vintage for typical kabinett. The wines are still incredibly ripe. The balance on the 2007s is wonderful, but you are getting top grade spatlese (which I suppose is better than 2006s botrytised auslese in a kabinett bottle).

There are a few I would call typical kabinett in style (out of the 40+ 2007 kabinetts I have tasted), but not many.

There are a few I would call typical kabinett in style (out of the 40+ 2007 kabinetts I have tasted), but not many.

Selbachs basic Kabinett is a good one.

-Bill

[David M. Bueker]

Selbach's basic Kabinett is a good one.

Not shocking, as they do well with kabinett on a consistent basis. I did not taste the non-vineyard designate kabinett, but their Zeltinger Sonnenuhr Kabinett and Zeltinger Himmelreich Kabinett Halbtrocken were both noteworthy successes.