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The VDP fears a failure of the new, intensively discussed viticulture law. In an email to members and the media, VDP President Steffen Christmann, Wilhelm Weil of the VDP Rheingau as well as Joachim Heger of the VDP Baden warn that the reform, which is based on a compromise, could be further watered down. "In the coming weeks, the final course will be set before the parliamentary deliberations in the German Bundestag and Bundesrat. Opponents of this long overdue change are mobilising on a broad level to hold on to old tried and tested customs that have contributed to the plight of German viticulture," they warn.
According to the VDP statement, the cooperatives demanded that members of the Bundestag "continue to be able to use Großlage without labelling for ten years and then see five years on". The large wineries would also try to convince politicians to "label the Großlage without place and without labelling like a Grand Cru". This is "absurd": "Michelsberg, Heuchelberg, Feuerberg or Vulkanfelsen in sole position on the label, like Schlossberg, Kirchenstück, La Romanée Conti or Montrachet." The VDP presidium members emphasise "that things cannot go on like this and no further cutbacks can be accepted".
The new law is to be passed by the Bundestag and Bundesrat by the end of the year.
(uka / Photo: VDP)