Vendange tardive

The phrase refers to a style of dessert wine where the grapes are allowed to hang on the vine until they start to dehydrate.

The name is sometimes written as the plural form, vendanges tardives, referring to the fact that several runs through the vineyard are often necessary to produce such wines.

Since 1984, the term has been legally defined in Alsace and may only be applied to wines that exceed a minimum must weight and pass blind tasting by the INAO.

He drafted rules for vendange tardive wine that were eventually accepted by the INAO on 1 March 1984,[1] and known unofficially as Hugel's Law in recognition of his crusade.

[1] The minimum sugar levels in the juice are a bit above those required for the German Auslese classification, but are routinely exceeded by good producers; on the other hand Alsace wines tend to be fermented more completely than those across the Rhine, reducing the amount of sugar in the final wine.