German wine – other terms on the label

On wine labels, German wine may be classified according to the residual sugar of the wine.

Trocken refers to dry wine. These wines have less than 9 grams/litre of residual sugar.

Halbtrocken wines are off-dry and have 9–18 grams/liter of residual sugar. Due to the high acidity (“crispness”) of many German wines, the taste profile of many halbtrocken wines fall within the “internationally dry” spectrum rather than being appreciably sweet.

Feinherb wines are slightly sweeter than halbtrocken wines.

There are also several terms to identify the grower and producers of the wine:

Weingut refers to an individual winegrowing and wine-producing estate, rather than industry.

Weinkellerei refers to a maturing and bottling facility, a bottler or shipper.

Winzergenossenschaft refers to a winemaking cooperative.

Gutsabfüllung refers to a grower/producer wine that is estate bottled. Abfüller also refers to a bottler or shipper.