Auction wine
Explanation
When a winery produces an auction wine, this is a special bottling of its best wine. The process of making an auction wine starts by earmarking a batch of grapes, a vineyard parcel or a specific barrel or cask of wine that proves to be of exceptional quality. By definition, such wines can only be bought at auctions and are not freely available for purchase. These bottles are adorned with a sticker labelling the wine accordingly.
VDP auctions
The annual VDP auctions have always been one of the highlights in the social calendar of Germany's Verband Deutscher Prädikatsweingüter (Association of German Prädikat Wine Estates, or VDP for short). In addition to the most recent bottles filled from VDP members' very best casks, the auctions also see rare and exquisite wines from older vintages go under the hammer. These older wines will have been stored all their lives in the cellars of the wineries that produced them – a guarantee of authenticity and quality.