Quality wine

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Quality wine is an international name for wines of a higher quality class that meet certain minimum legal requirements.

Germany

In Germany, a distinction is made between quality wine from certain growing areas (QbA) and the higher quality level quality wine with predicate ( Kabinett , Spätlese , Auslese , Beerenauslese , Trockenbeerenauslese , Eiswein ), which has also been officially called Prädikatswein since 2006 .

Table and country wines are not quality wines in this sense. Growing areas that are not designated as quality wine regions may not market their wine as quality wine, but only as country or table wine, even if the other requirements for quality wine are met. In Germany, this mainly affects Baierwein (Landweinggebiet Regensburg) and the Stargarder Land in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania.

Criteria for quality wine

In Germany, a wine may only be designated as a quality wine if it has been assigned an official test number (AP number) upon request . Requirements for this are

  • proof of the geographical origin of the wine from an approved area
  • a minimum quality of the grapes ( must weight )
  • the passed quality wine test for certain analytical maximum and minimum values ​​and a sensory assessed minimum standard of the wine
  • Compliance with guidelines for grape variety, cultivation, harvest and aging, for example, in contrast to QbA wine, a quality wine with a predicate may not be fortified to increase alcohol. Some of the guidelines, such as the definition of certain grape varieties, only apply in selected areas and are defined differently from area to area.

Austria

According to the Austrian Wine Law of 2009, quality and predicate wines as well as wines with the Districtus Austriae Controllatus (DAC) award are wines with a protected designation of origin (PDO) . The DAC designation was created through an amendment to the Austrian Wine Act as a region-specific designation analogous to French or Italian wine law; it has been used in several wine-growing regions since 2003 .

All quality and predicate wines may only be placed on the market after they have been tested by the state and given a state test number. The labeling takes place with a red-white-red banderole as a symbol for quality wine filled in bottles in Germany and by the mandatory indication of the state test number, the wine-growing area as well as the grape variety, vintage and quality level on the label.

A hectare maximum yield of 9000 kg (or 6750 l wine / ha) applies to all quality wines . It is produced exclusively from grapes from a single growing area and legally prescribed grape varieties and must be processed in the growing area itself or in the directly adjacent areas. In Austria, the production volume of quality and predicate wines is well above the lower quality levels.

Criteria for quality wines

  • The addition of sugar is permitted up to a total content of 15 g / l unfermented sugar
  • Alcohol enrichment is permitted up to a maximum of 2.0 % vol
  • the total alcohol content must not exceed 13.5% vol for white wine and 14.5% vol for red wine
  • for cabinet wine, which is not one of the predicate wines in Austria, at least 17 ° KMW = 84 ° Oe are required
  • the natural alcohol content must not be increased
  • the maximum alcohol content is 13% vol
  • the unfermented sugar content must not exceed 9 g / l
  • an addition of sugar is not permitted
  • For the predicate wines of particular maturity and type of reading, the following minimum requirements apply in addition to the cabinet wine:

Switzerland

The quality levels of the wine are regulated in Switzerland by the Wine Ordinance of 2007. It differentiates between the quality levels of table wine , country wine and wines with a controlled designation of origin (KUB / AOC ); the requirements of the latter correspond to quality wines.

The exact requirements are regulated by the cantons for the individual wine-growing regions, but the ordinance lays down binding minimum must weights and maximum yields for the three wine-growing regions of Western Switzerland, German-speaking Switzerland and Italian-speaking Switzerland and defines the criteria to be regulated by the cantons.

Criteria for quality wines

  • a controlled origin from a defined growing area; the directory of origin can be a canton or a region within a canton
  • the wine is produced from one or more specified varieties with acceptable farming methods and in accordance with approved methods developed
  • a specified natural minimum sugar content is achieved
  • the limitation of the yields per unit area for the individual permitted grape varieties
  • compliance with analytical limit values ​​and successful organoleptic testing of the ready-to-sell wine.

In addition, numerous protected terms with special requirements are defined in the Wine Ordinance, such as for special degrees of ripeness or harvesting processes ( Auslese , Spätlese and Beerenauslese ), but also for storage ( Primeur , Reserve ) or special locations (Village, Chateau ). The cantons are usually responsible for defining the detailed requirements; the federal ordinance only regulates minimum must weights and a ban on fortification in individual cases. As a special feature of Switzerland, many of these terms are identified and protected in several languages .

France

Here the wines of the appellation contrólée and the Vins Délimités de Qualité Supériéure correspond to the German quality wines psr. For the AOC wines , only the area of origin is mentioned, for the higher ones the sub-areas, individual locations or châteaux are on the label, or they come under the Cru - ratings such as Grand Cru classée (Premier, Deuxieme, Troisieme, Quatrieme, Cinquieme Cru) or Cru Bourgeois (as well as "Cru Bourgeois Superieur" and "Cru Bourgeois Exceptionel").

See also : Quality levels of viticulture in France

Italy

The DOC and DOCG wines without additional predicates can be compared with German quality wines psr.

Portugal

Portugal has 40 wine-growing areas for quality wines that have been produced in a special region and therefore bear the VQPRD ( Vinho de Qualidade Produzido em Região Demarcada ) label. 26 of them bear the DOC abbreviation ( Denominação de Origem Controlada ), the wines of the next quality wine level the IPR designation ( Indicação de Proveniencia Regulamentada ). In addition, Portugal's quality wines also include 6 VR or country wine regions ( Vinho Regional )

Hungary

According to the wine law in Hungary, a quality wine is called Minőségi Bor and must contain at least 12% alcohol by volume . The place and time of bottling, bottler, grape variety , vintage, origin , alcohol level and retail price must be indicated on the label.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ German Wine Law of 1994, Section 4 .
  2. ↑ Federal Law Gazette I No. 111/2009 : Federal Law on the Trade in Wine and Fruit Wine (Wine Law 2009)
  3. ↑ Martin Raggam: New Wine Law at a Glance , Der Winzer 11/2009 p. 88
  4. ↑ The common name PDO wine is not a sales description and must not be included on the label.
  5. ^ Statistics Austria: Grape harvest and wine inventory 2011 ( Memento from November 14, 2012 in the Internet Archive ).
  6. ↑ Swiss Ordinance on Viticulture and the Import of Wine of November 14, 2007: Art. 21. Wines with a controlled designation of origin
  7. ↑ Swiss Wine Ordinance, Appendix 1: Wine-specific terms

See also