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,
German wine classification The ripeness categories are referred to as "quality levels," which is a misnomer - ripeness is always a clue to a wine's body, but not necessarily a predictor of its quality. Also, ripeness is determined by sugar content at harvest and does not reflect the sugar content in the final wine. Thus a wine in any of the German categories can be dry (trocken) or fairly dry (halbtrocken.) The quality system of wines has been reorganized since 1 August 2009 by the EU wine market organization. The traditional German wine classification was superseded by an origin-related system (Terroir). The already