Common name in German for the totality of all minerals and trace elements in wine (see also under nutrients), which remains after the complete combustion of the evaporation residue of the wine(must or wine is evaporated and annealed until the carbon is completely burned off). The ash contains (except ammonium) the total amount of cations (positively charged ions) in the form of carbonates or other anhydrous mineral salts. Ranked according to the proportion, these are the minerals potassium (up to 1 g/l), phosphorus, calcium, magnesium and sodium as well as the trace elements manganese, zinc, copper, iron, fluorine, iodine and bromine. The total amount of these minerals in wine is between 1.5 and 4 g/l. In dry years, the ash content is lower, because less substances get into the berries due to lack of water. A complete list of all ingredients in the wine can be found under the keyword total extract.
![]()
In the past, you needed a wealth of encyclopaedias and specialist literature to keep up to date in your vinophile professional life. Today, Wine lexicon from wein.plus is one of my best helpers and can rightly be called the "bible of wine knowledge".
Prof. Dr. Walter Kutscher
Lehrgangsleiter Sommelierausbildung WIFI-Wien