Appears in
Oxford Companion to Wine

By Jancis Robinson

Published 2006

  • About

Wein (pronounced ‘vine’) means ‘wine’ in german and is therefore how a wine without geographical indication would be described in Germany and Austria. It is also the first syllable of a host of important German wine names such as Weinbau (vine-growing), Weinbrand (basic brandy), and Weingut (wine estate) as distinct from a Weinkellerei, which buys in grapes, must, or wine but probably owns vineyards only if it describes itself as the all-purpose Weingut-Weinkellerei. A Weinprobe is a wine tasting, Weinsäure is tartaric acid, some of which may eventually be precipitated as crystal tartrates, or Weinsteine. A wine made by blending ingredients from more than one eu country is a Wein aus der europäischen Gemeinschaft.