Reserve wine system, most DACs have an additional "Reserve" designation for a wine which has slightly more strict requirements. Before the 1971 German wine law, a term corresponding to reserve wine existed in "kabinett", sometimes written as "Kabinettwein". In 1971, the similar-sounding term "Kabinett" was instead introduced as the lowest level of the "Prädikatswein" category, i.e., with a completely different meaning. Therefore, in the present German wine classification no legally defined term corresponding to reserve wine exists. Reserve wine Reserve wine is wine of a higher quality than usual, or a wine that has been aged before being sold, or both. Traditionally,
Reserve wine regulated the presence of the term "reserve" on a wine label may be nothing but a marketing strategy. Indeed, in the case of one of the largest-selling premium wines, Kendall-Jackson Chardonnay, every bottle produced is "Vintner's Reserve". To indicate a traditional reserve wine, Kendall-Jackson uses the term "Grand Reserve". Like the term "old vines", "reserve" traditionally indicates a wine that is special, or at least different in flavor or aging potential. The presence of a non-reserve bottling with a producer that also sells reserve wine makes it more likely that "reserve" is being used in its traditional sense. Partly because