Friday, 9 December 2011

Grosses Gewachs

Have you noticed the GG designation after the Einzellage name on the label? (Also that the village names were not on the labels - Hofberg is in Dhron and Pechstein in Forst). GG stands for Grosses Gewachs (literally Great Growths) a designation for the members of VDP, the Association of German Pradikat Wine Estates, for their top dry wines from top sites. Although widely used, it is not a legal designation (VDP membership is optional and some top estates are not members). The Rheingau, on the other hand, has another designation - Erstes Gewachs, for their corresponding wines, but this one is defined by Law. There is also another symbol designating GG, that is the one behind Hofberg on the label on the left, the numeral 1 with an elongated baseline (hence looking like capital L) with a cluster of grapes. Apparently this will be the official symbol for GGs some time in the near future.

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