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Liebfraumilch; Liebfrauenmilch
[LEEP-frow-mihlkh]

Germany’s most exported wine, which is sweet, inexpensive, and generally looked down upon by connoisseurs. This wine’s origins go back to the sixteenth or seventeenth century. The word Liebfraumilch, which means “milk of Our Lady,” was originally used only for wines produced from the vineyards of the Liebfrauenkirche (“Church of Our Lady”), a church in the city of Worms in Germany’s RHEINHESSEN region. Over time, the word Liebfraumilch began to be used for any wine made in the Rhine region. In 1971 German law established specifications (which were modified in the 1980s) for calling a wine Liebfraumilch. Today, in order for a wine to be called Liebfraumilch, it must meet the following provisions: be a wine “of pleasant character”; contain a minimum of 18 grams of RESIDUAL SUGAR (1.8 percent); be made only from MÜLLER-THURGAU, SYLVANER, KERNER,or RIESLING grapes; be of QbA quality; not be labeled with Prädikat designations such as SPÄTLESE or AUSLESE; and come from one of the four German regions of RHEINHESSEN, PFALZ, RHEINGAU, and NAHE (in practice, almost all of it comes from the Rheinhessen and the Pfalz). As with most wines, the quality of Liebfraumilch can vary dramatically from producer to producer.
Related Links: Rheinhessen, residual sugar (RS), Muller-Thurgau, Pfalz
© Copyright Barron's Educational Services, Inc.
1995 based on THE WINE LOVER'S COMPANION,
by Ron Herbst and Sharon Tyler Herbst.

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