Trockenbeerenauslese is a German and Austrian wine term and type of dessert wine meaning "selected dried berries." It is often abbreviated to TBA.
The grapes have been individually picked and are shrivelled with noble rot (Botrytis cinerea), nearly to the point of being a raisin. They are therefore very sweet and rich, frequently with a lot of caramel and honey bouquet, rock fruits note such as apricot and distinctive aroma of the noble rot. The finest examples are made from the riesling grape, as this retains plenty of acidity even at the extreme ripeness, but other grape varieties can be used, and many are more prone to rot than riesling (such as Scheurebe, Ortega, Welschriesling, Chardonnay, Traminer, etc).
These wines are usually very rare and expensive, and some of the best are almost exclusively sold at the various German wine auctions. They are usually golden to deep golden in colour, sometimes even dark caramel. The body is viscous, very thick and concentrated, and arguably can be aged almost indefinitely. Although TBA has very high residual sugar level, the finest specimens are far from being cloying due to high level of acidity.
The style is similar to, but much more concentrated than, selection de grains nobles from Alsace or Sauternes from Bordeaux.
