All change for VDP German wine names

Last Wednesday, members of the VDP (the German association of premium wine producers) congregated at a special meeting in Neustadt/Pfalz to vote on some very important amendments to their present classification system.

Ever since the original regulations were implemented in 2002, critics have not been slow to identify what they perceived were the weaknesses or downright failures of this attempt to establish a quality guide and vineyard ranking for an organisation that includes most of the elite of German growers.

It cannot be denied that there were some very contentious issues, such as the simultaneous use of the designations Erste...