Cabinet

A term formerly used in Germany and Austria to classify a particularly outstanding wine, a so-called Kreszenz. The origin of the term is a wine cellar built in 1245 by the Cistercians in the Eberbach monastery (municipality of Eltville-Hattenheim in the German wine-growing region of Rheingau). The term cabinet is derived from a cellar compartment in which the best wines were stored (French cabinet = adjoining room; the term treasury has a similar meaning). It was first used in 1712 to describe a wine as reserve quality. This historic cellar is still called a "cabinet cellar" today. Such wines were not allowed to be fortified with sugar (to increase the alcohol content).

Cabinet - Kloster Eberbach Cabinet-Keller

However, the term "Cabinet" was also added to the Prädikat wine names, for example "Riesling Spätlese Cabinet". Cabinet was also used on its own as an alternative designation for naturally pure. Since the 1971 vintage, however, Cabinet has no longer been authorised under German wine law. Auslese, Spätlese etc. were not allowed to be fortified even before 1971. In Germany and Austria, there is the wine quality level Kabinett, which is derived from the term and means, among other things, "small museum room (own cellar compartment) with particularly valuable objects" (outstanding wines). See also under speciality wines.

Cabinet cellar: by User Uli on wikivoyage shared, CC BY-SA 3.0, Link

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Cabinet

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