A Special Birthday in 2010

A Century of Fine Wines from Top Sites and Creative Vintners

The World’s Oldest Association of Fine Wine Estates Celebrates a Special Birthday in 2010

The Prädikat Wine Estates will celebrate its centennial in 2010 under the motto: “A Century of Fine Wines from Top Sites and Creative Vintners.” Since its founding in 1910, the VDP, the world’s oldest association of wine estates, has been committed to the correlation of producer/site/quality, a trinity that has helped set high standards in German wine culture. The 200 members will celebrate this special birthday with a blaze of activities in Germany and wherever else top German wines are at home..

Anticipation

VDP president Steffen Christmann, in commenting on the VDP’s plans for 2010, remarked: “During the century of its existence, our association has achieved tremendous recognition among wine enthusiasts and professionals alike. Today, the image of German wines and the high quality of wines produced from the finest vineyard sites has reached a level comparable with that of the heyday of German wines a century ago. Many a fine German wine enjoys cult status. With our centennial events in 2010, we want to celebrate all these achievements – for one whole year.”

In Retrospect

In 1910,  four regional wine-growers’ associations joined forces to form the Verband Deutscher Naturweinversteigerer (i.e. estates that sold their “natural” [unchaptalized] wines at auction). These organizations – from the Rheingau and Rheinhessen, founded in 1897 and 1900, respectively, and their counterparts in the Mosel-Saar-Ruwer and Pfalz regions, both founded in 1908 – were the forerunners of today’s Verband Deutscher Prädikatsweingüter (VDP, or Association of German Prädikat Wine Estates).

Throughout the past century, the quality-driven goals and strict standards of the VDP have played no small part in shaping the viticultural and winemaking practices in use today. With their stringent statutes and their establishment of a German vineyard classification, the 200 members of the VDP have served as role models and justifiably can be viewed as the vanguard of the nation’s producers of top-quality wines.