Wine · Terminology

Kabinett

The lightest rung of Germany's Prädikat ladder — delicate, low in alcohol, often gently off-dry.

Kabinett is the first rung of Germany's Prädikatswein ladder: wine from fully ripe grapes picked at normal harvest time, with the lowest minimum must weight of the six Prädikate. No chaptalisation is permitted at any Prädikat level, so everything in the glass came from the fruit.

In practice Kabinett means lightness: often 7.5–9% alcohol, high acidity, delicate citrus and orchard fruit, and a touch of residual sugar that reads as balance rather than sweetness. It is one of the great food wines, and one of the great bargains.

In practice

  • Minimum must weight varies: roughly 67 °Oechsle in the Mosel, higher in warmer regions.
  • Classic Kabinett is feinherb or off-dry; Kabinett trocken exists and is bone dry, leaner, and increasingly common.
  • Ages far better than its weight suggests — a good Mosel Kabinett can run 20 years and gain the classic petrol note.
  • Warming vintages have made true Kabinett harder to produce: the fruit now routinely overshoots the ripeness band.

Where you'll meet it

Why Kabinett works at the table

  • Low alcohol — a wine at 8% doesn't fight the food or flatten the palate.
  • High acidity — cuts through fat and refreshes between bites.
  • A little sugar — the classic partner for chilli heat, ginger and spice, where a dry wine amplifies the burn.

Which makes it the standard recommendation for Thai, Sichuan, Indian and Korean food — cuisines that defeat most classic European pairings.

Reading the label

You see It means
Kabinett Lightest Prädikat; usually off-dry
Kabinett trocken Fermented dry; leaner, slightly higher alcohol
Kabinett feinherb Off-dry, an unregulated but widely used term
Kabinett + a vineyard name (Einzellage) Single site, usually the producer's better fruit

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