Trockenbeerenauslese

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Trockenbeerenauslese is a German and Austrian wine term and type of dessert wine meaning "selected dried berries." Often abbreviated to TBA, it is one of the German wine classification levels in the QmP category and the one requiring the highest must weight.

This means that the grapes have been individually picked and are shrivelled with noble rot, nearly to the point of being a raisin. They are therefore very sweet and rich, frequently with a lot of caramel and honey bouquet, rock fruits note such as apricot and distinctive aroma of the noble rot. The finest examples are made from the riesling grape, as this retains plenty of acidity even at the extreme ripeness, but other grape varieties can be used, and many are more prone to rot than riesling (such as Scheurebe, Ortega, Welschriesling, Chardonnay, Traminer, etc).

These wines are usually very rare and expensive, and some of the best are almost exclusively sold at the various German wine auctions. They are usually golden to deep golden in colour, sometimes even dark caramel. The body is viscous, very thick and concentrated, and arguably can be aged almost indefinitely. Although TBA has very high residual sugar level, the finest specimens are far from being cloying due to high level of acidity.

The style is similar to, but much more concentrated than, selection de grains nobles from Alsace or Sauternes from Bordeaux.

The same term has also been used since the 1960s in Austria for the same type of wines. Most TBA wines from Austria come from Neusiedlersee, Burgenland. On both sides of lake Neusiedl those wines are produced. East of the lake, the village of Illmitz is known for the production of "liquid gold" . At the western side of the lake inRust and St. Margarethen, wine of exceptionally good quality can be found. This region is known for its wide and shallow lakes which can lose more than half their volume due to evaporation. The mists created by these lakes provide a very conducive climate for Noble Rot to shrivel grapes.

Also see a similar style but with less must weight beerenauslese.

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