Sélection de Grains Nobles

Sélection de Grains Nobles (SGN) is French for "selection of noble berries" and refers to wines made from grapes affected by noble rot. SGN wines are sweet dessert wines with rich, concentrated flavours. Alsace wines were the first to be described as "Sélection de Grains Nobles", with the legal definition introduced in 1984 [http://www.hugel.com/pdf/VENDANGE_TARDIVE_and_SGN.pdf Hugel.com: Vendange Tardive and SGN] , read on February 11, 2008] , but the term is also seen in some other wine regions France, such as Loire.

Use in Alsace

For Alsace wines, SGN is the highest official category for late harvest wines, while the step below is called "Vendange tardive".

In 2001, the minimum must weight requirements for SGN in Alsace were increased to 18.2% for Gewürztraminer and Pinot Gris, and 16.4% for Riesling and Muscat, expressed as potential alcohol. Only these four "noble varieties" may carry the SGN designation, or the "Vendange tardive" designation.

The required level ripeness of the grapes are as follows, expressed as sugar content of the must and potential alcohol: [ [http://www.inao.gouv.fr/public/produits/showTexte.php?comiteNat=1&id_txt=1020 Décret du 1er mars 1984 modifié relatif aux appellations d'origine contrôlées « Alsace » et « Alsace grand cru »: Décret relatif aux conditions propres à la déclaration et à la présentation des mentions « vendanges tardives » et « sélection de grains nobles »] ] [ [http://www.weimax.com/prod03.htm Weimax Wines & Spirits: Dessert wines] , accessed February 11, 2008] [ [http://www.food.gov.uk/multimedia/pdfs/euwineregs.pdf Food.gov.uk: Guide to EU wine regulations, p. 11] , accessed on March 18, 2008]

These requirements make SGN roughly equivalent to a German Beerenauslese, but the Alsace style tend to favour slightly higher alcohol levels, which means that the residual sugar often is a little lower than in German wines, especially for Riesling and Muscat.

On rare occasions, the designation Quintessence de Grains Nobles (QGN) is seen for wines that significantly exceed the minimum requirements for SGN wines. Unlike the German designation Trockenbeerenauslese (TBA), QGN is no official designation, but it could be thought of as the equivalent of a high-grade TBA from Alsace.

Use in Loire

In the case of Loire valley wines, the designation SGN usually denotes wines that are extra sweet, and produced by one of the region's so-called "sugar hunters". [Pierre Rovani in Wine Advocate, issue #113: October 31, 1997] Often, the same producer will have another wine from the same appellation with less residual sugar without the SGN designation. The SGN designation can be used in the appellations Coteaux du Layon and Coteaux de l'Aubance and in both cases this requires the grape must used for the wine to have a minimum sugar content of 294 grams per liter rather than the basic level of 221 or 230 grams per liter respectively. [ [http://www.inao.gouv.fr/public/produits/showTexte.php?comiteNat=1&id_txt=926 INAO: Appellation rules for AOC Coteaux du Layon, with latest changes from February 21, 2007] ] [ [http://www.inao.gouv.fr/public/produits/showTexte.php?comiteNat=1&id_txt=596 INAO: Appellation rules for AOC Coteaux de l'Aubance , with latest changes from October 7, 2003] ]

References

ee also

* Vendange tardive
* Sweetness of wine