Cabinet, term of approbation applied to German wines from the 18th century until 1971, when its use was outlawed by the new german wine law. A wine labelled Auslese Cabinet, for instance, signified an auslese especially prized by its producer. The term was also used for precious works of art and, implying a piece worthy of enshrining in the proprietor’s cabinet, it was occasionally spelled with a K; Kabinettstück is still used in German in the sense of pièce de résistance and its cachet was borrowed by the 1971 Wine Law for the technically defined prädikat known as kabinett.
