Germany Pre-Auctions Report: Trier and Bad Kreuznach

BY ANNE KREBIEHL MW | SEPTEMBER 05, 2023

There are two key dates each September for lovers and collectors of German wine: the Trier and Bad Kreuznach auctions, to be held on the 15th and 17th of September 2023, respectively. Both are organized by the regional chapters of the VDP (Verband Deutscher Prädikatsweingüter), and offer wine lovers the opportunity to purchase rare wines that the member estates only sell through this channel, i.e., Auktionsweine, or auction wines. These special and limited bottlings are not available anywhere else, not even directly from the estates themselves. While both auctions are niche events in the wine world, coveted wines from star names such as Egon Müller, Joh. Jos Prüm, Keller or Wittmann set new price records every year. This report combines notes from two preliminary tastings of auction wines in late June and early July.

The Clemens Busch estate farms the craggy and varied slope of the Pündericher Marienburg vineyard.

Trier vs. Bad Kreuznach

The Trier auction is organized by the Grosser Ring, the VDP chapter representing Mosel, Saar and Ruwer estates. The 2023 auction will be the 136th annual auction of Prädikatsweine, i.e., Kabinett, Spätlese, Auslese, Beerenauslese, Trockenbeerenauslese and Eiswein. In the past, the auction was restricted to these wines, but for a number of years now, Grosse Gewächse, the dry wines from single vineyards classified as Grosse Lage have also been permitted. Two thousand and twenty-three will be the fifth auction where GGs are permitted. For the Trier auction, the member estates have a preliminary tasting, the so-called Taxprobe in summer, in which the estates meet with the auction commissionaires (the only people allowed to bid at the auction) to determine the price at which bidding will start based on tasting the wines. Some member estates bring just one wine; others bring more to determine which they will put up for auction.

The Bad Kreuznach auction is organized by the regional chapter of the VDP Nahe, but the auction is open to VDP members from Nahe, Rheinhessen, Ahr and Pfalz. These members also meet with the commissionaires for a pre-auction tasting, but here, prices are determined by the estates themselves, not in consultation with the commissionaires.

These pre-auction tastings are open to selected members of the press. I attended the Taxprobe in Trier on 30 June 2023 and the pre-tasting of the VDP Nahe in Monzingen on 4 July 2023. I tasted some auction wines a second time before and after these dates during estate visits.

Note that these wines were not available to taste: