01 Which German wine names require a minimum must weight?
Six of them. Kabinett, Spätlese, Auslese, Beerenauslese, Eiswein and Trockenbeerenauslese are Prädikate, reserved designations a bottle may carry only if the grape must reached a minimum weight in degrees Oechsle, measured before fermentation began. The word on the label is therefore not poetry but a measurement claim, fixed by law and checked against the must itself.
The figures are regional, set down in annexes that differ across the German wine lands. For the Rheingau, the Hessian minimum values are tabulated as the Rheingau Prädikat values on the Rauenthal reference site, a German language register that sets each reserved name against the degrees Oechsle it must prove and cites its sources alongside.
02 What is the difference between a category and a Prädikat?
A category answers where the wine sits in the quality order, while a Prädikat says how ripe the grapes were when picked. German wine runs from Deutscher Wein and Landwein up through Qualitätswein, and a Qualitätswein that proves extra ripeness earns the right to print a Prädikat; the full architecture of the German wine classification lays the levels out side by side.
The distinction matters because the two systems overlap without duplicating. Category is pedigree of origin and production; Prädikat is a ripeness grade stamped on top of it. A bottle can hold high category with no Prädikat at all, and the label tells the reader which claim is being made and which is not.
| Prädikat,What the word claims | |
|---|---|
| Kabinett | Ripe enough for the first reserved rung |
| Spätlese | Later picking, fuller must weight |
| Auslese | Selected ripe bunches, higher still |
| Beerenauslese | Selected overripe berries |
| Eiswein | Pressed from grapes frozen on the vine |
| Trockenbeerenauslese | Shrivelled berries, the top rung |
03 Could similar reserved-word rules apply to a homebrew label?
Nobody polices a kitchen cellar, yet the habit behind the rule transfers whole: print only what the liquid can prove. A home label that says strong, dry or late picked is making the same kind of claim a Prädikat makes, just without the annexe behind it, which is why weighing what barely registers and recording gravities turn adjectives into numbers a bottle can defend.
The practical template is modest: fruit or style, year, and any measured figure worth keeping, written the day the bottle is filled rather than reconstructed later. Our country wine notes make the same point from the hedgerow side, where a labelled vintage outlives every mystery bottle on the shelf.
