German wine classification

Table wine includes the designations Deutscher Wein (previously Tafelwein) and Landwein.

[8] Unlike the supposed equivalents of "Vin de Table" / "Vino da Tavola" and "Indicazione Geografica Tipica" / "Vin de Pays", production levels are not high, and these wines are typically exported to the United States.

There are also a number of specialty and regional wines, considered as special version of some quality category.

There are seven Deutscher Wein regions: Rhein-Mosel, Bayern, Neckar, Oberrhein, Albrechtsburg, Stargarder Land and Niederlausitz.

Deutscher Wein must be 100% German in origin, or specifically state on the label where grapes were sourced from within the European Union.

They are of the same size as a typical Einzellage and could be thought of as Einzellagen which were so famous that they were excused from displaying the village name.

Jon Bonné describes German wine labels as a "thicket of exotic words and abbreviations" that require "the vinous equivalent of Cliff notes to parse.

German wine domaines/"châteaux" are often called "Kloster", "Schloss", "Burg", "Domaine" or "Weingut" followed by some other name.

German wine labels may also include In recent years, the official classification has been criticised by many of the top producers, and additional classifications have been set down by wine growers' organisations such as VDP, without enjoying legal protection.

The two main reasons for criticism are that the official classification does not differentiate between better and lesser vineyards and that the quality levels are less appropriate to high-quality dry wines.

The bottle on the left displays: Producer ( Dr. Loosen ) – vintage – village (Bernkastel) and vineyard (Lay) – variety ( Riesling ) and Prädikat ( Eiswein ) – mandatory information in small print – alcoholic strength, region ( Mosel-Saar-Ruwer ) and volume.

The bottle on the right uses a slightly different order: Region ( Rheingau ) and variety (Riesling) – vintage – village (Kiedrich) and vineyard (Gräfenberg) – Prädikat (Auslese) – producer (Weingut Robert Weil) – volume and alcoholic strength.
A Riesling from the Rheingau using the "Feinherb" (off dry) designation
A bottle of Kabinett and a bottle of Kabinett trocken from the same producer and vineyard, showing how the sugar content of the finished wine may be indicated on a German wine label
A bottle of regular Riesling Auslese (left) and a bottle of Riesling Auslese Goldkapsel (Gold capsule) from the same producer
Indication: Selection in a vineyard in Rheinhessen
A Riesling from the Bernkastel region, on the Moselle River
Sample German Wine Label for a Kloster Eberbach Spätlese with front and back label. The top label is the "decorative" label which most consumers think of as the front label, but it is the smaller bottom label which contain the information required by the wine law.