Germany's Wine Laws Part 2
So, to recap from Part 1…
Germany’s wine laws almost completely revolve around quality being associated with the ripeness of the grapes when picked.
There is nothing to differentiate wines from different villages and vineyards within the wine regions.
Enter the VDP
To solve this problem, a very prestigious association of German winemakers and growers got involved. This group is called the VDP. You can think of them as the High Quality Producer Club. If you make QbA or Pradikat wines (see German Wine System in Part 1) you could potentially be invited into this club. Its members are allowed to add an *additional* designation to their QbA or Pradikat wines.
This additional designation (the VDP label) revolves completely around specific vineyards and plots much like the Burgundian Cru system, if you’re familiar with that. Finally, something terroir-focused!
The VDP categories from lowest to highest quality are as follows:
Gutswein - wines can be from anywhere in an entire region
Ortswein - wines are from the best vineyards in a certain village
Erste Lage - wines are from first class vineyards.
Grosse Lage (and Grosse Gewachs) - wines are from the best of the best vineyards!
The producers in this club are the best of the best, and even their wines in the lowest VDP category (Gutswein) will be awesome.
When in doubt about German wine, look for anything in any VDP category. You’ll know it’s VDP because they will all have this eagle/grape logo somewhere on the label, usually on the neck of the bottle.
Got all that? Ready for a bonus?
Another goal of the High Quality Producer Club (the VDP) is to recognize the deliciousness of the glorious sweet wines of Germany. In the recent past, sweet wines have been snubbed and the market has tended toward dry.
To restore the appreciation of sweet wines, if you’re a member of the VDP and you want to make a dry wine, you are not allowed to put it in the Pradikat category—that wine must be labelled as a QbA (the category below Pradikat). Only sweet wines are reserved for the famous Pradikat category!
Therefore, when buying wine, keep in mind that if you see a VDP wine labeled with a Pradikat label (Kabinett, Spatlese, and so on…) it will always be sweet.