The History of the VDP.Auctions

Top wines and top vintages

A history of wine auctions in Germany from the early 19th century to the present
  • It is not possible to reconstruct exactly when wines were first publicly auctioned in Germany. However, all traces lead to the Rheingau and the turbulent years after the end of the Old Empire. At the beginning of the 19th century, the ownership structure had been transformed by the secularisation of church property in favour of the new rulers of the land, as well as by the compensation of aristocrats with land on the right bank of the Rhine, who had lost their possessions there due to the annexation of the left bank of the Rhine by France. Two of the new rulers by Napoleon's grace, Friedrich-August von Nassau-Usingen and Friedrich-Wilhelm von Nassau-Weilburg, whose troops occupied the Rheingau region of Kurmainz in 1802 and acquired, among other things, the properties and vineyards of the Cistercian Abbey of Eberbach, held their first auctions of wines in Hattenheim and Eltville in 1804. In 1806 the first auction was held in the rooms of the former Eberbach Abbey. The wine is bought by wine merchants from Frankfurt, Mainz, Koblenz and Cologne. Conveniently located on navigable rivers, these cities have been the centres of the wine trade with "Rhine wine" since the Middle Ages.  (Wine Auction 2006, VDP-Rheingau).

  • From 1816 onwards, the wines from the domains of the now Duke of Nassau were sold in bottles on a trial basis, similar to the wines from the former Fuld castle estate Johannisberg (now owned by Prince Metternich). The experiment was discontinued in 1825, and from then on the Domanial and Cabinet wines were mainly sold again in barrels on the way to the auction. Even aristocratic estates and soon private individuals tried to market their wines themselves by auction as profitably as possible. Since the 1820s, the steadily growing supply has led to the founding of the first wine shops in the Rheingau and - with some delay - to the establishment of a (then steadily growing number of) brokers (commission agents).

  • The outstanding harvest of 1834 made the long-cherished idea of clearing the cellars of older and very old wines and putting them up for auction become reality in the domain administration. The announcement of this event of the century in numerous domestic and foreign newspapers on March 14 and 15, 1836 attracts almost 600 interested buyers "from all parts of the world" (Schüler 1917, 2) to Eberbach, "including the first wine merchants in Germany" (Struck 1983, 153). The experiment succeeds, although the oldest wines - various Hochheim wines from the early 18th century - only meet with a moderate response. The same applies to the legendary 1811s from the Steinberg. The barrel number 85 of the 1811 Steinberger, for example, only comes to 1700 gulden, although it should be noted that the older wines are only auctioned in small containers (Schüler 1917,2).  For barrel number 85 of the 1834 vintage, on the other hand, the Duke of Cambridge has to invest 5010 florins.

  • As the viticulture expert Johann Philipp Bronner wrote in 1836 in his paper "Der Weinbaue im Rheingaue. Von Hochheim bis Coblenz", the Duke of Nassau also sets culinary incentives to increase the attractiveness of the auctions and thus the demand: "All those strangers who come here on the day of the auction, whether or not they are Steygerers, are offered a free meal, with no shortage of good wines, and even Kabinets wines are donated for dessert ... This spiritual generosity of the government, which is of course based on speculation, gives the whole thing a significant boost through the confluence of so many wine lovers, and often raises the prices very much. “ (Bronner, Rheingau 96)

  • Until the middle of the 19th century, the Rheingau auctions gave Rhine wines an international reputation that at that time could only be compared with crus classés from the Médoc and Sauternais. In Germany as well as in England, white Rhine wines, together with French red wines, champagne as well as sweet wines, are an integral part of every menu. In view of the auction of cabinet wines in 1853, the domain administration considered it advisable to have the consuls of the duchy in Bremen, Hamburg, London, Rotterdam and Petersburg advertise the auction.

  • In the other quality wine-growing regions of Germany, namely the Rhine-Palatinate, the Middle Moselle and the Saar as well as the Rhine-Hessian Rhine front, the idea of self-marketing of the top wines by auction is only very slowly gaining acceptance. Newspaper advertisements and some printed auction lists prove the existence of such events. However, site wines like those in the Rheingau seem to be the exception. On the Moselle, local wines are usually mentioned ("Kaseler", "Brauneberger", "Graacher"), individual barrels are often described according to their storage location ("Im Keller von ..."). The place and time of the auctions are made known nationwide through advertisements in wine magazines, especially in the "Deutsche Wein-Zeitung", published by Diemer in Mainz in 1864. Around the turn of the century, commission agents also prepare their own, often multi-page overviews of the upcoming wine auctions for their customers.

  • After a series of good to very good vintages from the end of the 1850s to the mid-1860s - on the Moselle and Saar, for example, the vintages 1857, 1858, 1859, 1862 and 1865 - more and more joint wine auctions were held from the mid-1860s onwards, even in the city of Trier, which was far from the main traffic routes. "The big landowners, who produce noble natural wines, began to fight with all means at their disposal against an all too large supply of improved wines. The natural wine auctioneers were the first to see a merger as a suitable means of drawing the attention of the trade and consumers to their natural products. For the individual winery, the auction was in any case a great risk, because it was associated with high costs and was by no means always accompanied by success. Various owners initially joined forces for a week's auction and shared all costs jointly. For a long time, there were three different auction rings in Trier, but they were not visible to the outside world because their auctions were directly adjacent to each other. (Loeb 1922)

  • An early example of this development is the announcement of auctions on four consecutive days in March 1865 and at the beginning of April by wineries such as Felix Müller (Scharzhofberger), widow Josef Graach, heirs Rautenstrauch (Karthäuserhof), Kesselstatt (Kaseler) and Beulwitz (Mosel wines) to that of the Deutsche Wein-Zeitung of 4 February 1865. The third week after Easter gradually becomes established as the auction period.

  • In 1871, the Chamber of Commerce of Trier can note: "In the last two years of the auction, cycles of public wine auctions were held again with good success. This institution has proved its worth and already seems to have the character of continuity".

  • In the Rheingau, the growing competition from other top white wines from Germany is being reacted to immediately. The average prices that have been achieved since 1816 at the auctions of wines from the Domanial property vineyards of the Duke of Nassau and various noble and private wineries, as the basis for the oldest official vineyard site classification map in the world The "Vineyard Map for the Nassau Rheingau" compiled by Friedrich Wilhelm Dünkelberg was published in Wiesbaden in 1867. Under the impression of this map, the "Saar-Moselle-Wine-growing map for the administrative district of Trier" was created immediately afterwards. However, the basis of the "Prussian" vineyard site classification is not the proceeds of the auction, but the net yield calculations by the Prussian tax offices. Comparable data were not available for Nassau, which only became Prussian in 1866.

  • In 1874 the German Winegrowers' Association was founded in Trier. In the background is the struggle (legally decided only in 1901) for the sovereign interpretation of what may be called wine. The small "big landowners", who are wealthy in the best locations, defend the "natural wine" as the only true wine. But no one fails to recognise the necessity of "improving" "dependent" wines by adding sugar or sugared water in such a way that they become drinkable. What both groups have in common is the fight against artificial wine made from chemicals, fruit and water, or even raisin wine. The addition 

  • On 8 October 1908, a total of 29 wine producers, including two winegrowers' associations, joined together in the Rhineland Palatinate to form a "regional association". "The merger of the natural wine producers of the Rhine-Palatinate not only fulfilled a demand of modern times," it says one year later in a "Guide to the Wine Auctions of the Association of Natural Wine Auctioneers of the Rhine-Palatinate", which also contains the detailed catalogue of the auction conditions, comprising twelve points. "It also represents a historical consequence. For in the Rhineland-Palatinate, not monasteries or other ecclesiastical businesses or state domains as elsewhere, but the larger private wineries have been the bearers of quality viticulture and wine reputation since ancient times". The driving force behind this merger is the Deidesheim brothers Ludwig and Friedrich Bassermann. Paragraph 1 of the statutes states the following about the purpose of the association: "The purpose of the association is the promotion of viticulture, regulation of the conditions of wine sales, especially wine auctions. The wines are initially not auctioned together, but rather in spring each year over a period between the end of March and the end of May.
  • In 1910, the three traditional auction consortia join together in Trier to form the "Trier Association of Wine Estate Owners of Moselle, Saar and Ruwer". The purpose of the association is "the promotion of viticulture and the regulation of wine auctions". Like the auctions in the Rheingau, the auctions of the so-called "Great Ring" in Trier, which take place twice a year, attract numerous wine enthusiasts from near and far, in addition to commission agents and dealers. These are attracted by the prospect of tasting top wines for a small admission fee to the "wet" auctions. For the auctioneers, the benefit is greater than the damage. The stories of the "Schlachtenbummler" or "Schnutentunker" about their experiences on the Rhine and Moselle, as well as relevant press reports, turn the auctions into events of national importance. Pictures of the Trier auctions in particular have been used before and after the I. World War I have an iconic character. Even wines cannot be purchased by onlookers. This is (still today) reserved for the commission agents who bid for the wines in their own name but on behalf of others.  
  • At the spring auction in the Rheingau on 17 May 1910, a Beerenauslese Kabinett of the 1904 vintage from the estates of the administration of Prince Albrecht of Prussia in the Erbacher Marcobrunn vineyard will be put up for auction. For the piece barrel with 1200 l 48 600 marks are paid. In the spring of 1914, a few months before the outbreak of World War I, the Wilhelm Ruthe company (Wiesbaden) delivers this top wine and a 1893 Steinberger Cabinet Trockenbeerenauslese to the court of the Russian Tsar in the Winter Palace in Petersburg. 
  • In November 1910, the "Verband Deutscher Naturweinversteigererer" (VDNV) (Association of German Natural Wine Auctioneers) is founded. The driving force behind the amalgamation of the three Trier auction consortia as well as the amalgamation of the natural wine auction associations from the Rheingau, the Palatinate, Rhine-Hesse and the Moselle is Trier's Lord Mayor Albert von Bruchhausen (centre). The Bassermann-Jordan brothers from Deidesheim are in the background. Bruchhausen also becomes the first president of the VDNV - at the suggestion of the Rhine-Palatinate. The minutes of the constituent assembly of the VDNV, which will take place in Koblenz on November 26, 2010, state, among other things, that only those associations whose statutes only allowed the sale of self-produced natural wines should be allowed to become members of the association. Regarding the auctions, it was said that it should be avoided as far as possible that the auction dates of the affiliated associations come together. For 1911, however, this was hardly to be feared, as the Moselle would auction at the end of March or the beginning of April, Rheinhessen in the second half of the month, the Rheinpfalz at the beginning of May and the Rheingau from mid-May onwards.  For the future, a "joint advertising campaign for German wine, preferably abroad" should be considered. Likewise, a joint announcement of the auction of the regional associations in trade and daily newspapers. This should "shortly contain the auction dates of the individual associations and summarize information about the quantities and vintages of the wines coming up for auction".
  • In fact, the auctions are announced by VDNV member associations in the most important London wine trade journal in the years up to the outbreak of the First World War. In both the "Wine Trade Review" and Harper's "Wine and Spirit Trade Record", the auction of "German Natural Wines" is announced several times in half-page advertisements, the first time on 15 February 1911.
  • The 1911 vintage - like the 1811 vintage - is literally under a good star. After 100 years, Halley's comet is once again approaching the earth. Indeed, the wines of this vintage should be among the best of the 20th century at all. The prices paid at the auctions of 1912, 1913 and 1914 for the best wines of this vintage again exceed the boldest forecasts. In May 1913, for example, a half-piece of Schloss Johannisberger Kabinett Edelbeerenauslese was auctioned off at a price of 24010 Marks, which corresponds to a price of 40 Marks per litre or about 30 Marks per 0.75-litre bottle. In May 1926, this wine was on the wine list of the Wilhelm Ruthe company in the Wiesbaden Kurhaus at a price of 80 Marks. This amount corresponds to twice the weekly wage of a skilled worker in the means of production industry.
  • In 1912, the fifth member association to join the VDNV is the "Naturwein-Versteigerer an der Nahe". Paragraph 1 of the statutes reads: "The purpose of the association is the promotion of viticulture, regulation of the conditions of wine sales, joint preparation of the wine auctions. In fact, until the Second World War, the good one handful of members will auction their wines on two days in late spring of each year in the Great Hall of the Evangelical Parish Hall in Bad Kreuznach.
  • On May 10, 1913, a joint auction of the species takes place for the first (and last?) time in Neustadt (Haardt), "as has been customary in Trier for years" (Bassermann-Jordan 1913, 37 with picture). The top wines of the "main year" 1911 are offered for sale.
  • During the First World War, the wine auctions remain permitted in Prussia as well as in Hesse, contrary to many demands to prohibit them from their "price-driving" effect. In these countries, there is also no state setting of maximum prices. In the Rheingau, the intervention of the office of usury in the person of a commissioner in the winter of 1918 will soon be stopped, among other things after an intervention by the director of the Prussian viticulture domains.
  • In Trier, the wines of the outstanding 1917 vintage are not only auctioned in the spring of 1919, but in the autumn of 1918, closer in the first weeks after the collapse of the empire. Regardless of the revolution, Spanish flu, not to mention the occupation of the city first by American and then by French troops, between November 26 and December 13, 1918, a total of 1321 ½ Fuder naturally pure white wines as well as two Fuder red wines come under the hammer.
  • The Prussian Domains in the Rheingau had a particular interest in the exploitation of the 1917 vintage. Before it could be put up for auction, as usual, after the third racking, the war was over. But not only that: Rudolf Gareis, who had just been appointed to the successor of the legendary viticulture director Andreas Czéh, had to fear, that the French would hold themselves harmless at the Rheingau domains, which are located in their bridgehead on the right side of the Rhine. Under the most adverse circumstances Gareis was able in November 1918, a large part of the best Rheingauer wines of the last years to withdraw from the French - as once Duke Adolph the Cabinet-Wines from the Prussians. Only that the Prussian wines in 1918 were no longer "royal" and they wintered in Würzburg instead of (like 1866) in Strasbourg. When the Steinberger, Marcobrunner, Rüdesheimer, Assmannshäuser and Hochheimer were brought back to the Rheingau in 1919 and were auctioned in December, the crush in the Paulinenschlösschen in Wiesbaden was so big, that Gareis asked for three gendarmerie-guards "to maintain the order". One of these wines, barrel 70 Rauenthaler Balken Trockenauslese from the (now no more royal) Prussian domain, is regarded as the biggest wine of the vintage 1915. At the auction this wine achieves a price of 600 Marks per bottle. In May 1926, a bottle of this wine can be purchased for 100 marks in the Wiesbaden Kurhaus.
  • On the Moselle, the wines of the outstanding 1920 vintage are auctioned off in the autumn of the following year 1921. A few years later, Otto Wolfgang Loeb (1898-1974), as an eyewitness, states that the participation of foreigners was very high, and that the prices had risen to "dizzying heights". "Against his will, the trade had to increase at the highest prices to supplement its stock of quality wine." In 1922, it continued worriedly: "Nobody knows whether, given the fluctuating monetary value, after 1-2 years, when the wines have reached bottle maturity, there will still be buyers willing to pay 100, even 200 marks or more for the bottle." (112) In fact, the hyperinflation of 1922/23 also destroyed enormous capital in the wine trade. 
  • At the auctions in 1922 and 1923, top wines from the 1920 vintage and a large quantity of 1921 wines are sold on the Rhine and Moselle. But not only inflation makes the auction proceeds a waste of money, as long as they are quickly invested in material assets. Many of the 1921s, which were already highly praised in the harvest year, turn out to be a disappointment because they were vinified too quickly and filled too early. "Also," Wilhelm Ruthe said in a review of the year 1927, "the partly unfermented substances of the wines bottled too early put more physical strain on the drinker, so that one began to warn against this 'widow's wine'. Otherwise, the prognosis that the "properly developed 1921 vintage ..., and especially the not yet finished Auslese wines, ... ...are the most promising. They would one day be a "cellar ornament of the wine connoisseur and collector".
  • In May 1923, the French, in the course of the tightening of their reparations demands, also occupied the Prussian wine-growing domains on the Nahe, Moselle and Saar as well as in the Rheingau. Until the end of the occupation in September 1924, the Comité Directeur des Fôrets later sold several hundred lots in barrels to the usual commissioners and dealers. At the last minute, the Prussian Ministry of Agriculture in Berlin succeeds in withdrawing at least the top wines from French hands. Through the mediation of the Anheuser family, who are related to the owners of the American beer empire Anheuser-Busch, the top wines in barrels are sold to the wine dealer H. & L. Nicolaus ("Nicolaus and Anheuser"), located in Frankfurt and thus outside the French occupied Rhineland. The latter undertakes to auction off the top wines in Germany once the bottled wines have reached the bottle. The first wines come to the Nahe for auction as early as 1924. The highlight is an auction, which takes place on April 26, 1926 in Wiesbaden's Paulinenschlöchen Weine. To the general enthusiasm, wines from all locations of the state wine-growing domains are auctioned off. A 1921 Erbacher Markobrunn Trockenbeerenauslese from Erbach achieves a price of 65.50 marks per bottle. (Ruthe 99)
  • Auction catalogues from the Rheingau, in which, as in one of Johannisberg Castle of 14 May 1926, the prices and the names of the bidders were noted during the auction, show the great importance of Jewish commissioners and wine merchants for the Rheingau wine trade. Names such as Leo Levitta u. Söhne, Heymann and Hallgarten mingle with Söhnlein, Sieben or Brogsitter. By 1938 the National Socialists will have driven all (by their definition) Jewish merchants and commission agents into exile or out of the market.
  • In Trier, the great 1937 wines are auctioned off in the spring of 1939, and thus a few months before the outbreak of war - albeit under restrictive conditions such as the maximum prices that had been dictated to the so-called "Great n Ring" in 1937, like all other wine auctioneers, by the Reich Commissioner for Pricing. The next auction in Trier, according to an advertisement in the magazine "Der deutsche Weinbau" at the beginning of 1940, was to take place from 16th to 18th April.  In the short term it was banned, like all other auctions. The background to this decision is the conversion to a war economy, the constantly increasing demand of the Wehrmacht and also the approaching end of the "Sitzkrieg" between Nazi Germany on the one hand and France and Great Britain on the other. In fact, on May 10, Germany invades the hitherto neutral states of Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands.
  • It takes more than ten years before the tradition of wine auctions can be resumed. After six years of war, three years of French occupation with draconian restrictions on wine traffic and a scant year of gradual normalisation (after the currency reform), "top wines of a top vintage", as the "Deutsche Wein-Zeitung" later wrote, came under the hammer in mid-February 1949 in Trier: 133 Fuder of the 1947 vintage were to be offered according to the auction catalogue, plus one from 1945 and 1500 bottles of 1943.  The two-day auction ends triumphantly. And this despite the absence of the white buns, "which belong to the auction like the wine itself, since by chewing bread between the individual samples the taste has to be neutralized again and again to keep tongue and palate sensitive to the fine flavours of the wine". The 21 members of the Trier association who take part in the auction raise a total of more than 1.12 million marks. The lion's share of this sum, 707,000 Marks, is accounted for by the Saar wines auctioned in barrels, although with forester Geltz (Saarburg), Weißebach (Kanzem) and van Volxem (Wiltingen), well-known companies were missing. The most expensive wine turned out to be a Dhronhofberger from the cellars of the Episcopal Seminary in February 1949. For half a bottle of 1945er (a whole bottle had been announced) 13 500 marks are paid. Among the wines of the 1947 vintage, a barrel from the seminary's possession was placed at the top of the Moselle: a barrel of Ürzig-Erden Hödlay was sold for 12,600 marks. The commissioners invest even more money, namely 15,810 marks, for the best Fuder Saar wine: a finest selection from the Ockfener Herrenberg vineyard, produced in the Adolf Rheinart Erben and Saarburg winery. In addition to several Fuder Ockfener Herrenberg and Bockstein, numerous other Fuder Saar wines were sold for more than 10,000 Marks, including one of the Fuder Scharzhofberger wines from Egon Müller, but also two Fuder Dom-Scharzhofberger wines as well as a half and a whole Fuder Dom-Scharzhofberger selection from the Hohe Domkirche, plus selections from the Wawerner Herrenberg (Lintz) and the Wiltinger Rosenberg (F. Müller).
  • More than a year later, from 11th to 24th May 1950, the "exquisite treasures" of the Rheingau will once again be auctioned off. In addition to all post-war vintages, wines from the years 1937, 1938 and 1943 "from the historic cellars of the Rheingau's noble wine growing" will also be auctioned off. The history of the 43 members of the "Vereinigung Rheingauer Weingüter e.V." and the peculiarities of the vintages 1945 to 1949 are presented to interested parties in three different languages: in German, but also in English and French. Wiesbaden is one of the largest garrison towns of the American occupation troops. The opposite side of the Rhine was a French occupation zone until 1949.
  • In 1955, after several failed attempts, the "Association of Franconian Natural Wine Auctioneers" is founded and immediately incorporated into the VDNV. This step, which was significantly supported by the owners of the Rheingau wineries, gives the region the opportunity to showcase its best wines at the "Auction of German Top Wines" held for the first time on 5 May in the Kurhaus Wiesbaden. In addition to wines from Franconia, Wiesbaden will also be showing wines from the Rheingau, the Palatinate, Rheinhessen and even Baden. The members of the "Großer Ring" (Trier) will stay away from the auction, the natural wine auctioneers have not reunited at the Nahe. Most of the wines come from the 1953 vintage, the first great vintage of the young Federal Republic.
  • In addition to the wine exchange in Mainz, which has taken place every April since 1974, the VDP also organises so-called top wine auctions at irregular intervals, for example in 1974, 1978, 1981 (Mainz), 1985 (Trier), 1991 and 1997 (Wiesbaden). In 1981, the Schloss Vollrads winery, which can look back on an almost 800-year-old wine-growing tradition, displays an 1862 Schloss Vollrads Cabinet. A Riesling Trockenbeerenauslese from the "comet vintage" of 1911 is born from the cellar of Schloss Reinhartshausen, which at that time was still called "Administration Prinz Friedrich von Preußen". The exceptional 1921 vintage is represented by a Feinsten Auslese Eitelsbacher Kronenberg from the Karthäuserhof Winery (Ruwer) and a Steinberger Riesling Trockenbeerenauslese from the Cabinet Cellar of the then Prussian State Wineries (Eltville). Rarities are the Riesling Trockenbeerenauslese from the vineyard "Forster Kirchenstück" of the vintage 1925 (Winery Dr. Bürklin-Wolf, Wachenheim) as well as the Riesling Beeren-Auslese from the vineyard Lorcher Bodental of the vintage 1937, the second and last "great" vintage during the Nazi regime in Germany. The wine comes from the Graf von Kanitz winery in Lorch, which dates back to the Prussian reforms of Baron Friedrich Karl von und zum Stein. One bottle of Riesling Trockenbeerenauslese from the "Bernkasteler Doctor" vineyard (Winery Dr. H. Thanisch Wwe.) and one bottle of "Forster Freundstück" (Reichsrat von Buhl, Deidesheim) from the "Bodenheimer Silberberg" (Winery Liebrecht) will be auctioned off. The oldest wine from the Nahe wine-growing region is a 1949 Schlossböckelheim copper mine Riesling Trockenbeerenauslese from the cellar of the state wine-growing domain Niederhausen-Schloßböckelheim. From Franconia comes a 1964 Würzburg Neuberg Rieslaner Beerenauslese from Würzburg. The plot with the oldest vines of this Franconian new variety (Riesling x Silvaner, "Mainriesling") was cleared after the 1964 harvest.
  • At the VDP Rheingau's twice-yearly auctions in Eberbach Monastery, 250,000 to 500,000 euros per year are turned over in the 1980s and 1890s. In addition to wines from current vintages, mature wines and unique wines from great vintages in German wine history are offered again and again. In 1987, for example, a bottle of Johannisberger Riesling from the 1735 vintage was sold for 53,000 marks - the wine had been preserved in the cellar of the Schloss Schönborn winery. The year before, the Hessian State Wineries Kloster Eberbach had shown a bottle of Neroberger Trockenbeerenauslese from the legendary 1893 vintage - 35,000 Marks. One year after the outbreak of the First World War - in 1915 - the Schloss Reinhartshausen Winery, which at the time belonged to Prince Heinrich of Prussia, had produced a Riesling in the Erbacher Marcobrunn vineyard, which was also purchased in 1987 for 15,700 marks.
  • In 2000, a world record is set at the auctions of the VDP Rheingau: Commission agents offer 5000 marks (net) for a bottle of 1999 Kiedricher Gräfenberg Riesling Trockenbeerenauslese from the Robert Weil Winery.
  • Record also in Bad Kreuznach: In 2006, 1400 Euros net are offered for a young Nahe wine. It is a Riesling Trockenbeerenauslese from the Niederhäuser Hermannshöhle site (Helmut Dönnhoff Winery).
  • At the 2005 Trier autumn auction, the 2003 Scharzhofberger Riesling Trockenbeerenauslese from Egon Müller (Wiltingen) achieved the highest price ever paid for a young wine worldwide on September 18th. 22 bottles change hands at a price of 12,000 euros net each. For 36 half bottles 5500 Euro net each are invested.
  • In the 100th year of the VDP's existence, anniversary auctions will take place from 24 to 26 September 2010 in Trier (Mosel-Saar-Ruwer), in Eberbach Monastery (Rheingau, Franconia) and in Bad Kreuznach (Nahe, Palatinate, Ahr, Palatinate). About 15,000 bottles of the 2009 vintage and numerous unique pieces from the past hundred years will be auctioned off. The total proceeds will amount to a good 1.5 million euros. The highest price is achieved by a 1943 Steinberger Riesling Trockenbeerenauslese from the cellar of the Hessian State Wine Estates Kloster Eberbach. It will be auctioned off for 8568 Euro. A Riesling Auslese from the Wehlener Hammerstein site (Weingut S.A. Prüm) from 1911, the last great vintage before the outbreak of World War I, achieves 4855.20 Euros. A fine selection from the comparatively young 1966 vintage from the Niederhäuser Herrmannshöhle (Helmut Dönnhoff Winery) is added for 2623.95 euros. (VDP, 2010 Chronicle of a festival year, p. 100f.)
  • In 2018, at the 131st predicate wine auction Großer Ring in Trier, the Rieslings from the Saar and the Middle Mosel will once again be in the focus of the world public. At 200 euros net per bottle, a Scharzhofberger "Alte Rebe" of the 2017 vintage from the Egon Müller winery (Wiltingen) will set a new world record for a Kabinett wine.