The six Prädikate rank the sugar in the juice at harvest, measured in degrees Öchsle — they are a ripeness scale, not a sweetness scale. Kabinett sits at the bottom, Trockenbeerenauslese at the top, and what happens during fermentation is a separate decision entirely.
Which is why a Spätlese can arrive bone dry while a Kabinett beside it tastes off-dry. Nothing on the front label is obliged to warn you. For decades this has been the single biggest reason people give up on German wine, and it is about to change.
Read the alcohol before you read the Prädikat
The fastest way to know how sweet a German Riesling will be is to ignore the Prädikat and look at the alcohol. Sugar becomes alcohol during fermentation, so the two move in opposite directions.
7.5–9% — the yeast was stopped early. Expect real sweetness, balanced by high acidity.
10–11% — off-dry. Often labelled feinherb or halbtrocken.
11.5–13% — fermented out. Dry, and usually says trocken.
That one habit will get you further than memorising the ladder below.
The six Prädikate
Prädikat
Minimum must weight*
How the grapes are picked
Typical sweetness (classic style)
Typical alcohol
Kabinett
about 70–82° Öchsle
Normally ripe fruit from the main harvest
Dry to lightly sweet; roughly 20–50 g/L residual sugar when made in the classic style
7.5–11% (about 8–9% when sweet, 11–12% trocken)
Spätlese
about 76–90° Öchsle
Picked later and riper than the main harvest
Off-dry to medium-sweet; roughly 50–90 g/L
7.5–12.5% (8–9.5% when sweet, 12–13% trocken)
Auslese
about 83–100° Öchsle
Selected very ripe bunches, underripe berries discarded
Usually sweet; roughly 80–150 g/L, often with a touch of noble rot
7–13% (mostly 7.5–9%)
Beerenauslese (BA)
about 110–128° Öchsle
Individual overripe or nobly rotten berries
Sweet dessert wine; roughly 150–250 g/L
6–9%
Eiswein
about 110–128° Öchsle
Healthy grapes frozen on the vine, picked and pressed at −7 °C (19 °F) or below
Intensely sweet, roughly 150–250 g/L, over searing acidity
6–9%
Trockenbeerenauslese (TBA)
about 150–154° Öchsle
Shrivelled, nobly rotten berries picked one at a time
The sweetest of all; often well over 200 g/L
5.5–8%
*Approximate minimums as they apply to Riesling in the Mosel and Rheingau. Every region sets its own figure for each grape, a few go as low as 67° for Kabinett, and the bar rises in the warmer south. The sugar and alcohol columns are typical values, not rules: the law fixes the ripeness at harvest, and the producer decides how much of that sugar to ferment away.
Whatever the local threshold, two rules apply throughout: chaptalisation — adding sugar to the juice to raise alcohol — is banned outright for Prädikatswein, and every lot must pass a chemical analysis and an official tasting panel before it is granted the AP number printed on the label.
Note that Eiswein shares its must weight with Beerenauslese. The difference is not ripeness but ice: the water in the berry stays frozen in the press, so only concentrated juice runs out.
What trocken, halbtrocken and feinherb do to the sweetness
The Prädikat tells you how ripe the grapes were. A second set of words, printed only when the producer chooses, tells you how much sugar was left in the wine. They are the words that actually answer the question you were asking.
Word on the label
Residual sugar
In the glass
trocken (dry)
Up to 4 g/L, or up to 9 g/L if the acidity is within 2 g/L of the sugar
Fully dry, with the alcohol up around 11–13%. Spätlese trocken is a dry wine from Spätlese-ripe grapes, not a sweet one
halbtrocken (half-dry)
Up to 12 g/L, or up to 18 g/L if the acidity is no more than 10 g/L below the sugar
Off-dry: a little softness on the finish, rarely anything you would call sweet
feinherb
No legal definition; in practice just off-dry, usually a shade above halbtrocken
Gently rounded rather than sweet, and the friendliest style with food
lieblich / süß
18–45 g/L for lieblich, above 45 g/L for süß
Openly sweet. Most classic fruity Kabinett and Spätlese sit here even when neither word is printed
So the two systems stack. Kabinett, Spätlese and Auslese set the ripeness; trocken, feinherb and the rest set the sweetness; and where the sweetness word is missing, the alcohol figure at the top of this page fills the gap.
Why Kabinett trocken is disappearing
Germany rewrote its wine law on 27 January 2021 and gave the trade a transition period to move across. Two things change when it closes.
The Prädikat terms become reserved for wines that keep some residual sweetness, so Kabinett trocken and Spätlese trocken stop existing. And a Burgundian pyramid of origin takes over as the main quality signal — Anbaugebiet, then Region, then Ort, then Einzellage, with the finest single vineyards allowed to add Erste Lage and Grosse Lage.
In other words, dry German wine will be sold on where it grew, and the Prädikat finally becomes the sweetness cue everyone always assumed it was. If you have been using Spätlese to find dry Rheingau Riesling, that habit is on a timer.
Where the value actually is
Kabinett, and specifically Mosel Riesling Kabinett. It is the least fashionable rung, it costs a fraction of a Grosses Gewächs from the same estate, it sits around 8% alcohol, and good examples drink beautifully at fifteen years old. Very little else in wine offers that.
The common mistake is treating the ladder as a quality ranking and reaching for an Auslese to serve with dinner. An Auslese is usually too rich and too sweet for a main course. Point it at something fatty and salty instead — pork belly, a wedge of blue cheese — where the acidity has work to do, or pour it on its own after the plates have gone.
Not necessarily. Spätlese means the grapes were picked riper than the main harvest, and the wine can be fermented bone dry. Check the alcohol: around 8% means sweet, 12% or so means dry.
What does Kabinett mean on a German wine label?
It is the entry rung of the Prädikat ladder — grapes at normal harvest ripeness, roughly 67–82° Öchsle depending on region and variety. The wines are light and low in alcohol, from dry to gently off-dry.
What is the difference between Auslese and Beerenauslese?
Auslese selects whole ripe bunches from about 83° Öchsle. Beerenauslese selects individual overripe or nobly rotten berries from about 110° Öchsle, and is a full dessert wine made only in exceptional vintages.
What is Öchsle?
The German scale for must weight — how much sugar is dissolved in the unfermented grape juice. It is measured at harvest, and it is what the whole Prädikat system is built on.
What is the difference between Kabinett and Spätlese?
Ripeness at harvest. Kabinett is made from grapes at normal harvest ripeness; Spätlese means late harvest, so the grapes hung longer and reached a higher must weight. In the classic sweet style that makes a Spätlese richer, rounder and a little sweeter than a Kabinett at similar low alcohol; fermented dry, a Spätlese trocken is simply fuller and stronger than a Kabinett trocken. Neither word tells you the sweetness on its own. The alcohol does.
Is Auslese always sweet?
No, but it usually is. Auslese only certifies that selected, very ripe bunches were picked, at about 83–100° Öchsle. Most producers keep some of that sugar, so a typical Auslese is a rich, sweet wine at 7–9% alcohol, often with a touch of noble rot. An Auslese trocken, fermented dry to 13% or more, exists and is a big, powerful white. Check the alcohol before assuming either.
Kabinett vs Spätlese vs Auslese in one line
Kabinett is the lightest and leans driest, Spätlese is riper and rounder, Auslese is riper still and usually sweet: the same grape picked later each time, with the sweetness in the glass decided by the winemaker rather than by the word.
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