German wine auctions

A number of German wine auctions are held each year, where the premier German wine producers auction off some of the best young wines, as well as some older wines. Most auctions are arranged by the regional associations of Verband Deutscher Prädikats- und Qualitätsweingüter (VDP). These auctions differ from wine auctions on the second-hand market held by auction houses, where collectible wines are sold by private or corporate owners, since it is "first hand" wines that are sold.

Originally and up until the mid-20th century, before estate bottling was as standard as it is today, wines of more ordinary quality auctioned off by the barrel would also appear at these auctions. Today, the auctions are intended for small lot wines not sold through regular channels. Some of these wines are produced in quantities less than 100 litres. In the 2007 auctions, the smallest lot of a young wine corresponded to just 6 bottles (3 full and 6 half bottles) of a 2006 Trockenbeerenauslese, and the largest lot corresponded to 648 bottles of a 2006 Spätlese. The auctions are to a large extent focused on semi-sweet and sweet Riesling wines, but some dry Riesling wines, Spätburgunder wines and a few other wines are also auctioned, depending on the region.

The German wine classification system lends itself to differentiation of wines, especially sweet wines, according to quality level. This has most likely contributed to the tradition of producing small lot wines resulting from extreme selection, which is a tradition hardly found anywhere else in the wine world. The wines put up for auction belong in most Prädikat levels, but are usually given the additional designation Goldkapsel (Golden capsule) to show that they are "extra good", and small sticker announces that the bottle was sold at a particular auction. (To complicate matters, the unregulated Goldkapsel designation is not limited to auction wines.)

While the revenue from the auctions ais far from insignificant for many of the sellers, the auctions also serve a marketing purpose for the best VDP members, since it is a rather small circle of estates that are good enough to sell wine in these auctions.

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Wikipedia