Happy Birthday, VDP

7 Sep – considerably updated, with both pictures and text.

I'm in Berlin for the centenary celebrations of the VDP, Germany's top growers' association. Yesterday, Sunday, 70 (70!) of the edgy art galleries that are such an important part of contemporary Berlin were pressed into service as tasting rooms, with an average of three different VDP producers showing their wines there to members of the public who ambled in and out – encouraged by the perfect crisp September sunshine and kept in check perhaps by the five-euro deposit they had to pay for their rather smart wine glasses.

The Berliner...