The A.P. number a good guide to German wine

Some of the German wine producers make a lot of different wines, and several in each category – Kabinet, Spätlese, Auslese, Auslese GK, BA and TBA.

In some cases there are not a big difference between the different wines in the category, but in other cases there are quite a jump in quality. It’s an Auslese, the label looks the same, the producer is the same, even the vineyard is the same – same but different!

To find the best or the exact same wine, you have to use the usefull tools given by the German wine law – the A.P. number printed on the label – as seen on the a part of an older Egon Muller label below.

Check the A.P. number it’s your guide

The A.P. number is an approval number printed on the label of each wine. It contains trivial information about the region, producer – but the last four digits are important.

The last four digits are the wine number and the approval year. The last four digits 18 89 tells you this is wine no 18 from this producer approved in 1989.

The different Spätleses bottlings will be approved separately, thus also have a difference in the last four digits of the A.P. number. Normally all the wines from the vintage will be approved in the year following the harvest i.e. 1988 in 89.

Put the A.P. number in your tasing notes

With the A.P. number you can always identify the wine, and find it again. So write down the last four digits on your tasting notes. It would also be nice if the AP-number could be found on wine lists in restaurants.

Example to illustrate the importance of the A.P. number

In the great year 1994 Weingut Fritz Haag produced 9 different ausleses, 5 “regular” ausleses, 3 Auslese GK, and one Auslese LGK.

There is quite a big difference between the different Ausleses, just as the Auslese GK are different. One of the Auslese GK – 0495 – is an auktion wine, while the two others are non auktion wines, and even they are quite different in style.

To differentiate between these wines, the A.P. number is essential, and will give you a much better insight in the world of Mosel-Saar-Ruwer wines.

Exception JJ 1293

By now you are most likely thinking – this is easy. Well there are exceptions, as wines are not always approved the year following the harvest …

The J.J. Prum Wehlener Sonnenuhr Spätlese 1988 #12 was approved in 1993, thus having the last four digits 1293. So in this case you need both the vintage and the last four digits to find the wine! I only can think of this example of late bottling, but i’m sure there are more.

Is it a cask number?

The last four digits could represent or be interpreted as the cask number, but this is not always the case. It’s the approval number of wine xx from the producer and nothing more. If the wine is made from a blending of several casks, it will only have one approval number.

In the old days – 30 to 40 years back, some producers had an internal cask identification – cask 10 and so forth – thus pontetially conflicting with the A.P. system. The cask 10 1975 is not always the same as A.P. 1076.

These problems have now to my knowledge been eliminated, thus making the approval number a unique guide to the different wines and casks in the Mosel-Saar-Ruwer area.

ENJOY