What Does It Mean to “Be VDP”?

A lot has happened in German wine over the past 50 years — good, bad, and never been better. Through it all (and long before), one association of German fine wine producers, the Verband Deutscher Prädikatsweingüter, or VDP, has elected itself to fly the standard of German wine. Arguably, the association has done more than any other group to protect and advance the reputation of German wine at home and abroad. But it finds itself at a crossroads, along with the rest of the wine world.

The VDP’s influence is hard to overstate. More than a decade ago and in the absence of a sensible national classification system, the association introduced its own terroir-based “pyramid of quality,” based on the much-admired Burgundian model. Though controversial in some quarters, it gained widespread recognition as a viable parallel classification structure for its members. In fact, the VDP model has since more or less been enshrined in national wine law. 

These are grounds for celebration. This spring, the VDP convened for the 50th anniversary of its Weinbörse, an annual wine fair aimed at high-end trade and gastronomy along with the international press, in the city of Mainz. The occasion was an opportunity to gather almost all of the VDP’s 200 member estates to affirm their collective achievements.

But it was also a time for nervous glances over shoulders as a perfect storm of challenges bears down on the organization. So the fair served other purposes, too: as a forum for exchanging ideas and a proving ground for messaging designed to appeal to the next generation of would-be producers and consumers. 

Attracting a new audience for fine wine without losing the VDP’s established consumer base — older, wealthier, less alcohol-averse — is the order of the day. Are producers and organizations like the VDP best served by remaining true to their standards and traditions? Can they evolve their notions of what quality wine looks and tastes like? Or should they make more room in the tent for mavericks and in so doing, redefine quality for a new generation? 

Family Business

Like any club, the VDP defines itself by the line it draws around its members. Membership has long been perceived as elite, by invitation (or behind-the-scenes supplication) only. 

The association was, essentially, founded in 1910 by a clutch of producers who sought to distinguish their wines from those of the masses, specifically, those who sugared their wines in pursuit of palatability and price, a common practice at the time. Estate bottling helped to advance the reputation of member estates. Rarified auction sales boosted a sense of exclusivity. 

Founding members include pillars of German wine history. A few, like Würzburg’s Bürgerspital, are charitable institutions whose 700 years of existence, 120 hectares of vines, and admirable social mission anchor the organization in German culture. There are also a handful of titled estates, recognizable by names that start with Schloss or Freiherr, von or zu. But deep roots (or pockets) are not the main requirement for getting in.

“Nearly all [VDP estates] are family-owned, family-run businesses. That is a big, big strength of German winemaking,” notes Felix Prinz zu Salm-Salm, the 36th generation of his notably royal family to head up the ancient Weingut Prinz Salm in the Nahe. His family epitomizes many strands of VDP tradition: they own and operate the oldest private estate in Germany, founded in 1219. Felix’s great-grandfather was a founder of the forerunner of today’s VDP, his father its long-serving president. 

More Churn Than Meets the Eye

Members are selected by each regional chapter on the basis of “wines that really show where they come from,” says Frank Schönleber, of Weingut Emerich-Schönleber, president of the VDP’s Nahe chapter. “Also, the unique personality of the producer.” Five past vintages are tasted for consistency and the current vintage is assessed. Consideration is also given to terroir expression and aging potential.

Once in, each member pays a standard fee plus a second sum based on estate size. That would seem to make large estates (a relative rarity in Germany’s small holder-dominated wine landscape) especially desirable to the VDP as a way of maintaining financial viability, perhaps regardless of quality.

But the organization insists it reevaluates the membership status of every estate at least once every five years. Vineyard inspections, blind tastings, sustainable practices certification (or evidence of work towards it) are all part of the assessment. Should a winery fall short, new objectives are set, coaching is offered — or an estate may quietly leave.

That process results in a lot more churn than meets the eye. Since 1990, when these audits were introduced, 140 new members have joined and 101 estates left the VDP. “This figure probably shows the most what is perhaps least visible to the outside world, as the number around 200 hardly changes for external viewers,” says Theresa Olkus, the VDP’s managing director. 

Olkus herself represents one of the most visible changes. In 2022, the then 28-year-old joined the VDP as its co-managing director. She is already bringing her own generational imperatives to bear. The theme of this year’s Weinbörse was “Warum ich Winzer:in bin” — “Why I’m a winemaker. ” The answers came in the form of Instagram-ready images and tweet-length texts. Clean lines and fresh design were also the hallmarks of 200 one-off magnums created by each member estate as liquid statements of purpose. 

“We are working to communicate the VDP’s DNA: handcrafted quality, heritage or terroir, and sustainability,” Olkus says. “People know it within the wine bubble. But outside, where people are looking for orientation, especially Millennials and Gen Z —where sustainability and transparency are really important — we want to improve the visibility of a brand they can trust.”

Cultivating Diversity

Meike Näkel, together with her sister Dörte, runs her family’s estate Weingut Meyer-Näkel in the Ahr. She also sits on the VDP’s five-member executive board. She acknowledges the challenges inherent to modernizing large, traditional organizations. “A big ship analogy fits here,” Näkel says. “Isn’t it always true that associations that are old and rely on traditions are seen as slow and difficult to steer in new directions?” She emphasizes that “big” is relative here. “Ultimately, the VDP only accounts for 5% of Germany’s wine-growing area and around 3% of German production.”

But she feels that perception of the VDP misses what’s happening inside the ship. “For years, it may have looked like the same old faces. But look a bit deeper: We are almost all family wineries. Most of us have the possibility to give the business to the next generation one day — and there is a huge generational change at the moment, putting a lot of new wind in the sails.”

That wind comes from many directions. All German wine regions are represented and membership cuts across farming philosophies, varieties, estate size, income, age, and profile. Moreover, 44 of the VDP’s 200 estates are women-owned or co-owned, a number that is expected to climb in the coming years, in part because many daughters wait in the wings or are already sharing responsibility for the family estate. 

A growing share of Germany’s incontrovertible pioneers of organic and biodynamic farming, and yes, even natural winemaking now count among the VDP’s ranks, too. At Mainz, a panel discussion (conceived by Olkus) focused on how natural wines fit into the VDP’s quality and terroir concept. This is a topic unlikely to have been broached at the fair even a few years ago, but one that drew a packed house in 2024.

Four biodynamic growers with minimalist cellar inclinations — Jochen Beurer, Clemens Busch, Kai Schätzel, and Andreas Schumann — took the spotlight as panel moderator Aleks Zecevic reminded the audience that the VDP was founded as an association of Naturwein — natural wine — producers. Though the term had a different meaning at the time, the point comes through: quality is a reflection of the values of a given era. “Fifty years ago, the conversation was about less Oechsle; today we talk about less sulfites,” noted Schätzel of Weingut Schätzel in Rheinhessen. Will zero-zero be the VDP’s benchmark in another half century?

Schätzel is the association’s resident radical. His questions get to the heart of what the VDP must ask itself now. Off the dais, he continued his reflections, which are worth quoting at length:

“What is the VDP? There is the board and there are the farmers, the members. The board is reacting to the demands of the members.

If more and more members are willing to create something that is not here yet, the board will create the structures for it.

In a time when systems were chaotic, the VDP was a Naturwein club because they didn’t want to add sugar to the wines. Then it became a Prädikat wine club to communicate quality and to fix standards. Then they figured out that the sweet wines are perhaps not the most sexy for the near future, so they created something that we call today Grosses Gewächs, the dry wine style.

What will the VDP be in the near future? It’s on us to decide and create that.”

Finding Balance

As the generational balance within the VDP gradually shifts, those questions take center stage. 

With “drink less, drink better” the order of the day, the VDP’s premium reputation seems tailored for our times. Data show Millenials and Gen Z may be swayed by exactly the mix of values VDP producers increasingly represent: quality-driven, handcrafted, mostly from small family businesses, with a much higher share of organic or organic-adjacent farming than the national average. 

Steffen Christmann, of Weingut A. Christmann, has headed up the VDP since 2007. He and his daughter, Sophie Christmann run their family estate in the Pfalz in model VDP form: the farming is biodynamic and their intergenerational leadership is clearly on display. “The consumption habits of Gen Z are good for us,” he says. “They don’t drink as much alcohol as the generation before but are open to better quality. So they spend more money for it: 20, 30, 40 euros, which for the German market is quite a nice step upwards.”

It’s not just the next generation of consumers that needs cultivation. An important factor will also be how the association can lure new producers to a tough profession or woo those already in the job whose individualism is at odds with traditional notions of fine wine. Responsibility for figuring out how falls the VDP’s next-gen advisory board, which includes Julian Huber, Sebastian Fürst, and Caroline Diel, among others. 

Among the most recent additions to the VDP are Böhme & Töchter (Saale-Unstrut) and Martin Schwarz (Sachsen), two estates from eastern Germany, an area that has only been part of the VDP network since 2010. Knewitz (Rheinhessen), Max Müller I (Franken), Odinstal and Jülg (both Pfalz), A.J.Adam (Mosel), and Raumland (Rheinhessen) are other relative newcomers. It’s a healthy mix of small to mid-sized, lesser-known and highly acclaimed estates. Quality is incontrovertibly the throughline. But a welcome edginess is creeping in.

Beyond “VDP Bashing“

Winemaker Moritz Haidle, of Weingut Karl Haidle in Württemberg, threads that needle. After making his name in the rap and hip-hop scenes around Stuttgart, he took over his family’s estate, streamlined its portfolio, converted to biodynamics, and even sprayed a little graffiti on some of his wine labels. His cheerful antiestablishmentarianism makes him one of the association’s most surprising — and effective — advocates. 

“It’s easy to bash the VDP,”  says Haidle, who sits on the association’s executive board along with Näkel. “Some somms love to make fun of and complain about the VDP and how conservative it is. But in the end, most of the wineries somms love are in the VDP. It’s sad because since we have Theresa [Olkus], I think we are one of the most modern and innovative clubs. So much of what the German wine scene has achieved rests on the successes and innovations that came from the VDP. That’s too often forgotten.” 

As producers grapple with climatic, economic, and demographic issues, “it’s always easier working together than working alone, and being in a membership like the VDP, you have the possibility to look at problems together. This sense of openness has enabled the association to make enormous progress over the last few decades and put it in a pioneering position,” Meike Näkel notes.

She also values the benefits of size in uncertain times. “A big ship, like the VDP, that you can rely on, even in the kind of very heavy weather conditions we have now, has a lot of advantages,” she says. She speaks from experience. Her family’s winery is located in the Ahr, a region devastated by flooding in 2021. The VDP was there to help in the form of colleagues on the ground and a fundraising campaign that raised 3.8 million euros to benefit all growers, not just the member estates there.

The VDP’s efforts typically end up helping the German wine industry as a whole. The association is a leading trainer of future wine growers and makers. It lobbies for the interests of artisan wines in Berlin. And it opens opportunities for up-and-comers through its efforts to demonstrate to the world the quality German wine is capable of.

Fine Wine in Trying Times

Wine producers worldwide are dealing with climate extremes, labor shortages, surging material costs, burdensome regulations — all set against shrinking wine consumption. VDP producers, with all their history and prestige, are not immune.

Recently, the association has been grappling with another challenge. Its trademarked classification system of estate, village, premier cru, and grand cru vineyards, with tight limits on permitted varieties, yields, harvest and vinification methods — which the organization has worked tirelessly to link to quality in consumers’ minds — has been carbon copied into German wine law with the specific limitations still being worked out by authorities. 

In an act of branding that verges on the compulsive, the VDP prefix is now clamped onto the names of member estates (e.g., VDP.Weingut Rudolf May) and their vineyards (e.g., VDP.GROSSE LAGE®). But it shows how worried the association is about potential dilution of hard-won recognition for its system: Savvy consumers know Grosses Gewächs, or GG, the VDP’s designation for dry wines from single vineyards it recognizes as grand crus, as a premium signifier. But when that consumer walks into a shop and sees a VDP.GG next to a GG from a non-VDP member — as can legally happen now — will they understand the difference and pay accordingly? 

Perception of value, value of perception

Germans are notoriously price-sensitive. Sixty-four percent buy their wine at discounters and in supermarkets. By contrast, less than 1% of VDP wines are sold at discount stores. The reason is clear: the average price of a VDP wine is  €11.50 per bottle, compared to the average German bottle price of €3.83. At the top end of the pyramid, the average price of a VDP GG bottle hovers at €45, more than 10x the average German bottle price. This speaks volumes about the perception of value — and the value of perception. 

As the VDP prepares to convene professional tasters from around the world later this month for its annual GG preview in Wiesbaden, the focus will be where it usually is at such events: on the rituals of assessing a vintage and judging who, at the gilded apex of German wine, has made the most of it. 

At the event, tasters will be shaping how quality, and by extension fine wine, are defined for the future. Time is part of that definition, too. “The VDP has been in existence since 1910,” says Olkus. “Always in the past, if there were changes in the outside world, it only helped to develop changes on the inside, too.” 

The author was a guest of the VDP at the Mainzer Weinbörse.