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Auslese - The German and Austrian Selected Harvest
Corelle Anderson
Classic Wines
Auslese is a German wine word for a late harvest wine and is a more developed category than Sptlese in the QmP category of the Austrian and German wine classification. The grapes are chosen from selected and very mature bunches in the autumn, which is late November/early December, and have to be hand picked. Normally Auslese wine can be made in only the finest harvest years that have been suitably warm. A small amount of the grapes may be affected by noble rot in some regions even though this never controls the character of the wine. Rheingau winemaker Schloss Johannisberg is usually recognized with discovering Auslese wine in 1787.
The wines are occasionally made dry in some areas, such as Palatinate but are more naturally sweeter, as the very high alcohol levels, around 13-14%, in dry examples can make them uneven mainly when young. The usual weight for an Auslese is 90 oechsle. These wines, particularly when made from the Riesling grape can age for very long periods of time, often ten years or more.
As German Wine makers try to carve out a slot in developing red wine, the Auslese maturity categorization has come into play as the ideal level to make Sptburgunder, also known as Pinot Noir, mostly in the Rheingau, Pfalz, and Baden regions. Winemakers are testing with grapes at Auslese level readiness with Burgundian style manufacture methods involving oak aging and a higher extraction of tannin levels.
Under German wine law, the Prdikat excellence system divides wines into different sweetness, or maturity, levels. The lowest of these is Kabinett, then Sptlese, then Auslese, then Beerenauslese, followed by Trockenbeerenauslese. Auslese means 'selected harvest', and refers to grapes that have been picked a week or so after the original harvesting of ripe grapes. The best Auslese fruit is not only very ripe but botrytis-effected, and even though this is best fermented into a sweet wine, dry styles are still probable at these sugar-levels. Dry Ausleses have a tendency to be very alcoholic and rather clumsy; sweet Ausleses, particularly those from Riesling grapes, have wonderful ripe lusciousness, balanced by bracing acidity.
Article submitted Thursday, August 28, 2008
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