Dry berry selection
Trockenbeerenauslese (short: TBA ) is a predicate for quality wines . They are now officially called Prädikat wines. It is the highest wine quality level of the predicate wines .
A Trockenbeerenauslese is from grapes pressed provided on the vine of gray mold ( Botrytis cinerea were infested). The fungus causes the so-called noble rot in autumn, especially when it is foggy and warm and humid weather . The fungal attack perforates the berry skins so that they can dry out, which means that the sugar is naturally strongly concentrated through water evaporation as a result of the sun's rays. The whole or part of the grapes remain on the vine until they have almost dried into raisins.
Traditionally in Germany the individual berries by hand read , but in practice only one is must weight of at least 150 ° Oechsle for the achievement of the predicate decisive. Particularly strong botrytis infestation, long ripening times and favorable conditions can sometimes make the picking or breaking out of the berries almost superfluous. This is where the term “outbreak” for Trockenbeerenauslese comes from.
The berries then provide tiny amounts of a mostly low-alcohol elixir that is unique in Germany, often with only 5–8% alcohol and large amounts of unfermented grape sugar and a brilliant acidity. Because the yeasts only die off completely when the alcohol content is high, there are also high-percentage Trockenbeerenauslese in rare cases. Good Trockenbeerenauslese are mostly amber in color; Due to the extremely high proportion of solids that naturally cannot oxidize, their shelf life - assuming adequate storage conditions - is 100 years and more.
In Austria , Trockenbeerenauslese must meet the requirements for quality wines and come from noble rotten berries, with a minimum requirement of 156 ° Oechsle / 30 ° KMW . Trockenbeerenauslese from Lake Neusiedl are particularly well known .
literature
- Rudolf Knoll : Noble sweet wines . Wilhelm Heyne Verlag, Munich 2000, ISBN 3-453-15956-X .