• Von Othegraven - GERMANIA

Von Othegraven - GERMANIA

VON OTHEGRAVEN Winery, located in the Moselle region that reaches the highest peaks of German winemaking excellence, famous for its award-winning Rieslings. The estate, which dates back to the 16th century, stretches over 16 hectares from Riesling to Kanzem, owned by Gunter Jauch whose grandmother was a von Othegraven.
The German quality system is one of a kind. The climate directly affects the degree of ripeness of the grape and therefore its sugar content and an unripe grape, therefore low in sugar, will produce a low alcoholic wine. For this reason, the production of quality wines in Germany is closely linked to the concept of "degree of ripeness of the grapes", a characteristic that makes this system unique.
The German quality system provides for six levels of grape ripeness. A producer can, by harvesting the grapes at different times, produce wines from the same vineyard that can belong to all six categories. We will therefore have, sorted by increasing degree of ripeness in degrees Oechsle (Oe), a unit of measurement to indicate by how many grams a liter of must exceeds the weight of a liter of water:
- Trocken: literal translation "dry". It contains a maximum of 4 to 9 grams per liter of residual sugar. The higher the acidity, the higher the sugar residue can be.
- Kabinett: Literal translation “pantry wine” (kabinett are small wooden cabinets). It is produced from overripe grapes. Contains up to 60 grams per liter of residual sugar approximately.
- Spatlese: literal translation “late harvest” (spat- “tardiva”, -lese “harvest”). Contains up to 80 grams per liter of residual sugar approximately.
- Auslese: literal translation “harvest from selected bunches” (aus- “selected”, -lese “harvest”). Contains up to 100 grams per liter of approximately residual sugar.
- Beerenauslese: literal translation “harvest from selected grapes” (beeren- “grapes”, -aus- “selected”, -lese “harvest”). Contains up to 200 grams per liter of residual sugar approximately.
- Trockenbeerenauslese: literal translation "harvest from selected dried grapes" (trocken- "dry", in this case "withered" referring to the grape, -beeren- "grapes", -aus- "selected", -lese "harvest") . Contains up to 270 grams per liter of approximately residual sugar.
- Eiswein: grapes harvested at a temperature not higher than -7 ° with a concentration not lower than 110 ° Oe.
All categories of wines can be vinified by completing the fermentation to obtain dry wines or by interrupting it first and thus obtaining semi-sweet or sweet wines. The mention on the label will therefore be:
Trocken or Dry for dry wines with a maximum of 9 grams / liter of residual sugar
Halbtrocken or Off-Dry or Feinherb for semi-dry wines with a maximum of 18 grams / liter of residual sugar
While the Kabinett, and sometimes the Auslese, can be found in the dry and semi-dry version, the Beerenauslese, the Trockenbeerenauslese and the Eiswein are always characterized by residual sugar.