Southern strength – Germany's 2024 VDP wines

Thursday 19 June 2025 • 5 min read
pouring red wine at the Mainzer Weinbörse 2025 © VDP by Peter Bender

The second half of this report focuses on Baden, Pfalz, Rheinhessen, Rheingau and Württemberg. See also part one, Beyond the frost line.

Few would dispute that this is a particularly challenging time to be in the wine industry. Producers find themselves navigating a complex web of rising costs, shifting consumption, trade tensions and the omnipresent ‘black box’ that is climate change. Add to that an increasingly critical public-health discourse around alcohol, and a ‘cultural asset’ that has long felt recession-proof is proving itself to be anything but. 

Yet a resolve to deliver, regardless of the challenge, felt like the unofficial motto...