The decree of 1 March 1984 regulated the use of the terms vendanges tardives and sélection de grains nobles.
The decree of 24 January 2001 reduced the permitted yields while adding the possibility of modifying each cru's specifications, on the advice of the local wine producers.
Praelatenberg means "hill of the prelates" in German, referring as mentioned above to the Ebersmunster Abbey which farmed the area from the ninth century.
The appellation is subject to the climatic features of the Alsace region in general, in particular the protection from wind and rain provided by the Vosges mountains.
The "heavy but well-drained"[7] quartz-containing gneiss soil is thought to provide the wines with a strong minerality, and the microclimate with its east-south-east orientation seems relatively insensitive to the vagaries of vintage changes.