Foundation
It was in 1786 – 10 years after the American Declaration of Independence- when Peter Josef Valckenberg founded his wine merchant company in the City of Worms on the banks of the River Rhine. A few years before he had traveled up the river coming from the Netherlands where he was born, to settle in this former medieval imperial city which at that time was already 1700 years old. The city was known because it was a traditional meeting place for Catholic Church emissaries, but also hosted imperial meetings within it’s city walls. It was since Roman times, 2000 years ago, and still is today one of the of wine growing centers of Germany.

History of Germany’s Largest Selling Wine: Liebfraumilch
Valckenberg did not enjoy peaceful times because French revolutionary troops invaded Germany 1789 to occupy the left side of the Rhine River. In early 1808 the French government auctioned off a lot of former catholic owned church properties including the vineyard around the Church of Our Lady north of the city. The adjacent remaining wing of a Monastery was built in the 1300s to support the church and those vineyards in the cloister gardens which were and still are known to be the original vineyards of Liebfraumilch (translated: Wine as lovely as the Milk of Our Lady) - once Germany’s most well known and highest priced wine.

Peter Josef was the first to make this already well known name, Liebfraumilch, available to the public. He shipped his original Liebfraumilch down the Rhine River to Rotterdam and from there over the channel to the United Kingdom. At that time no one was really interested in German wines, as it was red claret wines from Bordeaux that were consumed by the British Court and by the establishment in those days. Valckenberg, his son and his grandson started and built German wine exports so successfully that his family business was the leading market for German wines world wide until World War I. Around the year 1900 in London Valckenberg’s Original Liebfraumilch sold for the same prices as Chateaux Margaux.

In 1908 the German Wine Grower’s Association decided to introduce a law that would protect certain names to designated vineyards .Thus, the Valckenberg family, being the owners of the largest share of the original vineyard, was confronted with the question of whether to protect the name of Liebfraumilch or agree to use this name for a regional type of wine. At that time the name of Liebfraumilch was used by a lot of producers up and down the Rhine River, it became synonymous for Rhine wines. Since the Valckenberg families 30 acres would not have been sufficient to produce enough Liebfraumilch to supply the world market, the decision was made for Liebfraumilch to become a regional wine. Then the “Original Liebfraumilch” vineyards (next to the St. Mary Cloister) were named “Liebfrauenstift-Kirchenstueck”

Even today Valckenberg produces and ships wines from these famous vineyards. To show a difference between the regional type of Liebfraumilch made by any other producer and the one made by the original producer, Valckenberg has started to use the “MADONNA Liebfraumilch” which is today Germany’s oldest trade mark for wine.

Leading Exporter for German Great Estate Wines
When German wine exporters started those wines, they were not sold in bottles but rather by the cask. Since stabilization of those low alcoholic wines was difficult those wines were consumed in the production area. It was only in the 1840`s when the wine making techniques improved to a point where it was possible to bottle the wines in glass containers and ship them in wooden boxes. In the Valckenberg archives there is a large selection of labels dating back to the middle of the 1800`s. Some of these Valckenberg labels have an importer’s name imprinted like “1840 Liebfraumilch, imported by Pfirrmann & Pfau, Cincinnati, Ohio”.

But ever since Valckenberg Wine Merchants were a distribution channel for the wines of those “Grand Chateaux” of Rhine and Mosel. It wasn’t until the early 1900s when estates started to bottle and sell the wines on their own. In the early days of German wine exports until the times after World War I. Valckenberg was the wine merchant who bought the wines from the famous estates and bottled them at their premises. Thus, it was up to them to do all the marketing for the estates. Still today, the Valckenberg Wine Merchants are for many famous German Estates the most important export channel to overseas markets.

Valckenberg Wine Merchants sell and ship German Wines into 40 countries world wide. The main market is Asia, it was the first one to really market German Wine in Japan, and was a cooperation between Valckenberg and Japan’s largest wine importer SUNTORY Co. For the last 30 years Valckenberg’s MADONNA brand has been the biggest selling single wine (of all wines).
Valckenberg wines were the first imported wines advertised on national TV in Japan, also a large amount of estate wines are being shipped to Japan by Valckenberg.

The United States and Canada are a “core market” for Valckenberg, more than 10 years ago Valckenberg International, Inc. was founded in the US to give better service to our customers. The administrative office (3 full time employees), handle all the paperwork for importing and distribution. Furthermore we have 3 full time employees, Julie Swift, Director of Sales & Marketing South East and Nancy Peach, Director of Sales & Marketing North East, who work all of the east coast, some southern and eastern Midwest states. Christoph Rimmele Director of Sales & Marketing West Coast who works all of the west coast.
Two more managers, Stefan Bauer Vice President International Sales and Christian Witte Director U.S. Marketing & Sales, who are based in Germany, supervise sales throughout the United States Besides of that they work the Midwest, Canada and manage some Key accounts. The president of the company, Wilhelm Steifensand, travels the U.S several times a year as well.
Since June 2001 P.J.Valckenberg has become the exclusive wine supplier and a sponsor of the Epcot German Pavilion at the WALT DISNEY WORLD Resort, near Orlando, Florida.

Public relations and press contacts are being coordinated between Valckenberg International and Valckenberg Germany frequently. As a promotion and marketing tool the owners of many German Great Estates travel and work the US coordinated by Valckenberg several times a year.

Two public warehouses one at the east and one at west coast secure availability of the most important brands marketed by Valckenberg.

These include not only Valckenberg Rhine Wines and Graff Mosel Rieslings but also estate wines. Shipping container orders directly to our U.S and Canadian customers is doing most of the business. An increasing amount of business however, comes in from smaller customers, who cannot buy full container loads. These customers get their wines through the warehouses by consolidated container shipments.

Maximin Gruenhaus, Bassermann-Jordan, Reichsgraf von Kesselstatt, Baron von Heyl, Baron zu Knyphausen, Graf von Neipperg, Schloss Wallhausen, Fuerst zu Castell, Schloss Saarstein, J.J. Pruem, Dr. Loosen, Grans-Fassian, Schloss Johannisberg and about 15 more estates trust Valckenberg Wine Merchants to do their marketing in North America.