Wine harvest: faster, sweet, lively – the Federweißer season begins

The wine harvest begins in the wine -growing regions, and this increases the anticipation for friends of the feather whites. It tastes sparkling, lively and sweet and is still filled during fermentation. The start of the season for the drink is usually at the end of Augst/early September, says the spokesman for the German Wine Institute, Ernst Büscher. The weather is currently excellent for the development of the grapes.

The feather whites are mainly made from white grape varieties, but there are also the rarer made of red grapes, like to also refer to “red rustling” or then just called spring red. According to the Weininstitut, Federweißer is drunk all autumn.

Cloudy and sparkling and only half -finished

The feather white is a middle thing between grape juice and finished wine. The juice obtained from the harvested grapes is moved with yeast, begins to ferment and is then filled before the fermentation is completed as in the actual wine. He fermented in the bottles – every bottle then tastes different. The small yeast -containing particles in Federweißen make it cloudy and look like feathers – hence the name, explains the German wine institute.

The alcohol content of the “partially fermented grape must”, as the feather -whitus is correctly called in the wine law, is between 4 and about 11 percent. In the beginning it is even sweeter, the longer he gives, the more alcohol it contains.

Because it fermented in the bottle, Federweißer has to be stored standing. It is sold in non -closed bottles so that the carbon dioxide can escape and the bottle does not burst. So you can’t keep it for a long time. It is therefore not exported.

Rhineland-Palatinate is a leader in production, followed by Baden-Württemberg and the Rheingau in Hesse, says Büscher. And the most Federweißer is drunk there. Nationwide, around five to six million liters would be sold each year.