The German Wine Society is dedicated to improving knowledge of German wines and conducting events at which such wines are shared and appreciated. The Society is private, educational and not for profit.
Annual dues are currently $35 per individual or couple, and there is also a one-time initiation fee of $10 per person for a GWS medallion.
Efforts to bring together those who enjoy German wine in the US were not made until 1977. At that time, the growing numbers of Americans who had attended the German Wine Academyin Geisenheim demanded the formation of a society of oenophiles devoted to the wines of Germany, similar to those existing for lovers of the wines of Burgundy, Bordeaux, Alsace and Italy. The foremost of these societies originated in the mid-thirties, for the express purpose of promoting the wines of their areas at a time when Americans having just lived through Prohibition, had little knowledge of the fine wines of the world. Germany, on the other hand, produces fine wines in small quantities, and her export of them was of little importance to an industrial nation.