Know your étiquette! VDP: Easy as ABC!

Visitors to this site will be familiar with our determination to simplify things at Vininspo! It’s our fervent belief that the wine world should be welcoming, so we'd like to break down all barriers to people participating in, and contributing to, wine culture. And speaking as an avid fan of German wine, it would be a tragedy if people don't give it a whirl due to difficulties around language, rules and regulations!

So it is that we tackle a slightly daunting subject: Demystifying German wine law and explaining the highly influential quality-winegrower organisation known as the VDP.

The title of this video is a bit tongue in cheek; the Verband Deutscher Prädikatsweingüter (don't run away!) is not the simplest subject. But like many things German, it has a very sound logic. Once you get to grips with it, not only does it makes sense in its own right but it's easy to understand in the context of quality wine in other wine regions.

This is, necessarily, a lightning-quick snapshot but it will be supplemented by other elucidating content in due course. I hope that getting to know the concept and philosophy of this group helps you understand the German wines we see in export markets.

Though VDP members only account for about 3% of Germany’s harvest, these are the folks flying the flag globally for wines grown to the highest viticultural standards on the most-special vineyards. Because of these lofty standards, they tend to be disproportionately represented in good restaurants and bottleshops the world over.

In recent episodes, we have looked at wines from Dr Loosen and Dönnhoff. Those sites —Wehlener Sonnenuhr in the Mosel and Norheimer Kirschheck in the Nahe—are VDP Grosse Lage-rated (grand-cru) vineyards, and both wines were grown by a VDP member. So it’s handy know how this all knits together.