A Place for Prädikat

by Samantha Cole-Johnson

The one piece of German wine law I thought I fully understood was the Prädikat system. First, I memorized the Prädikat levels. Later, I memorized the minimum must weights. I pushed aside my frustration that the sweetness of a wine did not correspond with Prädikat level — accepting that residual sugar wasn’t part of the system. 

Before visiting Germany, I never expected that the lack of consistency in sweetness for Prädikat wines would be an ongoing point of tension in the very country that came up with the system. Or, that by prioritizing origin over Oechsle degrees, Germany’s renowned wine organization Verband Deutscher Prädikatsweingüter (VDP) would in essence dismiss the entire century-old philosophy of Prädikat wines that they themselves helped create! Beyond sweetness levels, I never considered that there would be disparities in the way minimum must weight was achieved, or that how that level was achieved was ultimately just as important as the level itself.

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