Wine · Terminology

VDP

Germany's association of top estates, which classifies by vineyard site rather than must weight.

The VDP — Verein Deutscher Prädikatsweingüter — is a private association of around 200 leading German estates. It is not part of German wine law, and that is precisely the point: the VDP classifies wine by vineyard site, in the Burgundian manner, rather than by the must weight that governs the official Prädikatswein system.

Members are audited on vineyard practice, yields and quality, and can be expelled. Their bottles carry the eagle-and-grapes logo on the capsule.

In practice

The four-tier pyramid, from the ground up:

  • VDP.Gutswein — estate wine, the everyday tier.
  • VDP.Ortswein — village wine, from a single community's better sites.
  • VDP.Erste Lage — "first site", a premier-cru equivalent.
  • VDP.Grosse Lage — "great site", the grand-cru equivalent; a dry wine from one of these is a Grosses Gewächs.

Where you'll meet it

  • On the best German bottles — the eagle is the fastest quality signal on a German shelf.
  • The Germany country guide and the Mosel.
  • Alongside, and sometimes in tension with, the legal Qualitätswein hierarchy.

Site classification versus ripeness classification

German wine law VDP
Ranks by Must weight at harvest Vineyard site
Top tier Trockenbeerenauslese Grosse Lage
Model Ripeness ladder Burgundy's climats
Legal status Statutory Private association rules
Yield limits Generous Stricter than the law requires

The VDP's argument is that a ripeness ladder made sense when ripeness was hard to achieve, and makes less sense in a warming climate where nearly everyone can reach Spätlese must weight. Its critics point out that a private body drawing vineyard boundaries has obvious conflicts of interest.

Reading a VDP label

  • Grosses Gewächs / GG — dry wine from a Grosse Lage site.
  • Prädikat terms on a VDP bottle — reserved for wines with residual sugar; members agreed to stop using Kabinett trocken, Spätlese trocken and the like.
  • Site name in large type — under VDP rules, only classified sites may be named this way.

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