Formerly a common term in German-speaking countries for a special quality of wine whose grape must was not allowed to be fortified in order to increase the alcohol content. As an alternative, "Cabinet" (with a C) could also appear on the bottle label instead of "naturrein". Such wines were also known as "Kreszenz".
The terms "naturrein", "Cabinet" (in this historical sense) and "Kreszenz" or word combinations with these are no longer permitted under German and Austrian wine law because wine is legally considered a natural product anyway. They have been replaced by the Prädikat wine designations such as Beerenauslese or Trockenbeerenauslese, for which enrichment is also not permitted. The historical term "Cabinet" should not be confused with the current quality level "Kabinett" (with a K), which may still be used. The closely related term "natural wine" is also not permitted (see details there).
![]()
For my many years of work as an editor with a wine and culinary focus, I always like to inform myself about special questions at Wine lexicon. Spontaneous reading and following links often leads to exciting discoveries in the wide world of wine.
Dr. Christa Hanten
Fachjournalistin, Lektorin und Verkosterin, Wien