When in the Palatinate the first grapes for the Federweißer are harvested as a harbinger of the new vintage, then in the Rheingau the verdict is made on the current vintage of dry German top wines. Wine experts and wine journalists from 22 countries will come together in the Wiesbaden Kurhauscolonnaden until Tuesday to taste the top dry wines of the almost 200 member winegrowers of the Association of Quality Wineries (VDP) over a total of three days. According to the association’s internal rules, these wines may only be sold from September 1st.
For the VDP, this round of tastings in August is a well-established routine. The Rheingau plays a special role this time, because after a year of transition, this regional association is focusing entirely on deceleration: the large plants from the Rheingau are only sold two years after the harvest. This means that most of the top Rheingau wines from the vintage highly praised by numerous experts for the Riesling grape variety are only tasted in a year’s time and until then continue to mature in barrels, tanks or bottles. The other regional associations leave that to their member companies. The result: Because this time there were many great wines from the 2021 vintage next to those from 2020, it was once again shown that the development of Riesling is better served by cooler, “medium-ripe” years such as 2021 than warm years such as 2018 and 2020.
Smell, taste, evaluate: a taster at work.
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Image: Wonge Bergman
The second special feature: the VDP is celebrating a small anniversary with “20 years of great growth”. In 2002, the first wines in this category came onto the market. The pioneer was the Rheingau, where some VDP winegrowers had already brought the first premium wines called Erstes Gewächs onto the market in the early 1990s, which were still “illegal” under wine law at the time. It was not until 1999 that these wines became official with the Hessian state regulation and their production based on a scientific quality map was made possible for all winegrowers who owned vineyards in now officially recognized top locations and observed set criteria such as hand picking and maximum yield during production. The Rüdesheim winemaker Bernhard Breuer has been one of the pioneers and drivers of this development since the 1980s.
Although Breuer left the VDP disappointed in 2000 and died in 2004 at the age of only 57, he was now posthumously awarded the golden VDP badge of honor to mark the anniversary. This highest award of the VDP is intended as recognition of the “Spiritus Rector”, who “significantly initiated and shaped the classification of German top crus”, according to the VDP. Breuer was “pioneer of a stringent location classification for Germany” and a visionary. His daughter Theresa Breuer, who now runs the Georg Breuer winery, accepted the award.
According to the VDP, there is a renaissance of great dry wines from the best vineyards. The “VDP.Großes Gewächs” brand is “in a league on par with the best wines in the world,” says VDP President Steffen Christmann. Today, these wines are exported to almost 100 countries around the world. Many would be subscribed months in advance, some would be auctioned off at top prices. Prices also increasingly reflected international recognition, justifying low yields and high production costs.
Origin profiling of German wine
According to the VDP, the average prices for this year’s 629 Grosse Gewächse from 327 different vineyards, which together account for around eight percent of VDP production, are just under 40 euros per bottle (2002 around 16 euros). Around 80 percent of all VDP wines are drunk domestically, 20 percent are exported. The export quota for the Großer Gewächs is given as 30 percent. The most important export countries are the Scandinavian countries, the United States and China as well as Great Britain. The VDP estates cultivate around 5,600 hectares and thus 5.5 percent of the German vineyard area.
The VDP currently sees the “German wine industry at a crossroads against the background of the new wine law”. The new wine law is “a first tentative step” in the direction of origin profiling for Germany. However, the consistent definition of the criteria for top wines will require staying power.
Certified sustainable management
It has always been the aim of the VDP to transfer the classification of the best vineyards into the wine law. However, this requires “credible and stringent implementation” based on the value of the soil and the understanding of “great terroirs”. The VDP winegrowers are ready to pass on their experiences. However, the VDP warns of failure “as with all previous attempts” and of hasty decisions.
By 2025, the VDP members must commit themselves to a certified sustainable economy. 35 percent of the VDP vineyards are already cultivated organically, with a “strongly increasing” trend. A fifth of the entire German organic wine-growing area is cultivated by around 50 VDP companies, some of which work according to the even stricter biodynamic guidelines.
In any case, the annual presentation is a three-day challenge for the 170 tasters and two dozen service staff. 82 flights with almost 450 different wines were tempered in around 40 refrigerators before they were put on the tasting table. Then it’s time to smell, taste and evaluate.