Liebfraumilch

German sweet wine from the Rhine valley; originally from the vineyard beside the Liebfrauenkirche in Worms.

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[LEEB-frow-mihlk; LEEP-frow-mihlkh] This lightly sweet German white wine is made from a blend that often includes Riesling, Silvaner or Müller-Thurgau grapes. Its quality varies greatly depending on the shipper. Liebfraumilch is German for "the milk of our Lady," and was so named because it originally came from the vineyards of a church of the same name, Liebfrauenkirche-"Church of our Lady".

[LEEP-frow-mihlkh] Germany's most exported wine, which is sweet, inexpensive, and generally looked down upon by connoisseurs. This wine's origins go back to the sixteenth or seventeenth century. The word Liebfraumilch, which means "milk of Our Lady," was originally used only for wines produced from the vineyards of the Liebfrauenkirche ("Church of Our Lady"), a church in the city of Worms in Germany's rheinhessen region. Over time, the word Liebfraumilch began to be used for any wine made in the Rhine region. In 1971 German law established specifications (which were modified in the 1980s) for calling a wine Liebfraumilch. Today, in order for a wine to be called Liebfraumilch, it must meet the following provisions: be a wine "of pleasant character"; contain a minimum of 18 grams of residual sugar (1.8 percent); be made only from müller-thurgau, sylvaner, kerner or riesling grapes; be of QbA quality; not be labeled with Prädikat designations such as spätlese or auslese; and come from one of the four German regions of rheinhessen, pfalz, rheingau and nahe (in practice, almost all of it comes from the Rheinhessen and the Pfalz). As with most wines, the quality of Liebfraumilch can vary dramatically from producer to producer.

• Wines

Müller-Thurgau is often used in the production of Liebfraumilch.

Liebfraumilch or Liebfrau(e)nmilch is a style of semi-sweet white German wine which may be produced, mostly for export, in the regions Rheinhessen, Palatinate, Rheingau and Nahe. The name is a German word literally meaning "Beloved lady's milk". The original German spelling of the word is Liebfrauenmilch, given to the wine produced from the vineyards of the Liebfrauenkirche or Church of Our Lady in the Rhineland-Palatinate city of Worms since the 18th century. The spelling Liebfraumilch is more common on labels of exported wine.^[1]

The generic label Liebfraumilch is typically used to market vintages from anywhere in the most of the major wine growing areas of Germany, the notable exception being the Mosel. Wine with very similar characteristics but made from higher quality grapes can be labeled as Spätlese or Auslese. In the U.S. and the UK, perhaps the best known example has been Blue Nun, which no longer uses the Liebfraumilch designation.

While the term Liebfraumilch is associated with low quality wine, German Wine Law requires it to be at the Qualitätswein bestimmter Anbaugebiete (QbA) level - the 3rd rank of 4. It must also be from Rheinhessen, Pfalz, Nahe or Rheingau, the grapes used must be at least 70% Riesling, Silvaner or Müller-Thurgau, and it must have 18-40g/li residual sugar.

See also

• German wine classification

References

1. ^ Wein-Plus Glossar: Liebfrauenmilch, read on January 13, 2008

External links

• Valckenberg company history

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