VDP Wine Exchange
Wineries expect significant increases in costs and prices
The top wineries in Germany expect cost increases of 30 percent and corresponding price increases. Photo: Karl-Josef Hildenbrand/dpa
© dpa-infocom GmbH
The Association of Prädikat Wineries (VDP) is counting on “consumers drinking less wine, but better ones”. Compared to France, top German wines are still cheap.
The top wineries in Germany expect cost increases of 30 percent and corresponding price increases.
The reasons given by the President of the Association of German Prädikat Wineries (VDP), Steffen Christmann, on Sunday included higher prices for cardboard boxes and “the drastic increase in wages”. These are to be welcomed in the interests of the employees, “but someone has to pay for it and in the end it’s the consumers.”
Less, but better wine
At the opening of the VDP Wine Exchange in Mainz, the Palatinate winemaker said: “We assume that consumers will drink less wine, but better.” He is confident that the 200 companies in the association could also achieve higher revenues with this development. Last year, the VDP members achieved sales of 444 million euros with sales of 33 million bottles. The VDP members undertake to comply with quality standards, which include limiting crop yields.
While a 0.75 liter bottle of German wine is sold for an average of 3.69 euros, the price range of the VDP producers starts at 10.00 euros for the quality level of the estate wine, which is produced with grapes from different locations. The average price for wines from top VDP locations labeled “Große Lage” was 36 euros last year.
Riesling established as an absolute top wine
“Riesling has established itself as an absolute top wine, but the Burgundians have also undergone an incredible development in recent years, especially the Pinot Noir,” said Christmann. In the market for red wines of the highest quality, “we benefit from the fact that our friends from Burgundy call up prices that make a wine of 40 or 50 euros appear as an occasion”.
In the meantime, exports have also recovered, said Christmann about the results of the VDP wineries, which account for 5.5 percent of the total area under vines in the 13 German wine-growing regions. The export share increased last year by four percentage points to 21 percent. The most important export markets are Scandinavia, with Denmark in first place, the USA and China.