Winegrowing on steep slopes is labour-intensive, expensive and not without risk – but also fascinating and a tourist magnet. The special features can be found in the bottle and in the price.
Wine is grown on around 14,000 hectares on the steep slopes of the river valleys of the Rhine, Moselle, Main, Neckar and Elbe. According to the German Wine Institute (DWI), the area of these scenic steep slopes has remained largely unchanged in recent years, with slight fluctuations, and accounts for around 14 percent of the total area under vines in Germany. Extreme weather as a result of climate change, concerns about young people, a shortage of skilled workers and significantly increasing costs pose additional challenges for the winegrowers of this already demanding form of cultivation.
“Steep-slope viticulture requires a lot more manual work, is more time-consuming and physically demanding,” reports Randolf Kauer from the Middle Rhine. The expert and professor from the Geisenheim University is a winemaker himself. “While you only need about 200 to 250 hours to work one hectare of vineyard on the flat, on steep slopes it takes 800 to 1600 hours, depending on the mechanization wheel,” says Ernst Büscher from the DWI. At the same time, the yields are lower because of the often rocky, shallow locations with weathered slate soils, says Kauer.
In addition, there is the complex and expensive preservation of the dry stone walls that support the steep terraces. The time-consuming repair costs more than 1,000 euros per square meter, says Büscher. “In the Württemberg wine-growing region alone there are over 800 hectares of steep vineyards terraced with dry stone walls.” Farming on the narrow, steep slopes is also not without its dangers. At least once a year there is a serious accident in Germany, report Kauer and Büscher.
Winemaker: Rarer and more expensive
The winemaker Carlo Schmitt from the Mosel was about eleven years old when his father had a fatal accident on a steep slope. The winery then had to be drastically reduced to 1.5 hectares. In the meantime, it has almost doubled in size and is set to continue to grow. The special feature: Schmitt’s vineyards stretch around 30 kilometers along the Moselle between Neumagen and Schweich. Because of the many meanders of the river, the terroir – the soil, the location, the special climatic conditions – is very different, says the 24-year-old, who has high quality standards for his wines.
“Steep-slope viticulture only has a future in the premium segment,” says Roman Niewodniczanski, owner of the Van Volxem winery on the Saar and Moselle. “Steep slope wines will become rarer and more expensive in the future.”
When does a steep slope begin? “A vineyard must have a slope of more than 30 percent,” explains Büscher. However, many vineyards are significantly steeper. The “Bremmer Calmont” on the Moselle is said to be the steepest vineyard in Europe at 68 degrees. Extremely old, deep-rooted vines, together with the mineral soil and higher day-night fluctuations, accounted for the special quality of the steep slope wines.
Modern technology could make the work easier
After many, many decades of significant decline, the growing area in the Middle Rhine UNESCO World Heritage Site, with its particularly steep slopes, is again “relatively stable in terms of area” – even if it is one of the smallest in Germany at around 470 hectares, reports Kauer. “There are many companies whose successor to the Middle Rhine has now been secured.” Around 1900 there were still around 2000 hectares of steep vineyards in the region and in 1970 there were still 700 hectares. “We have the potential to replant around 200 hectares.”
Modern technology can make a lot of things easier, especially in times of a shortage of skilled workers, even on the steepest and steepest slopes, says Kauer. Cable-supported caterpillar vehicles can now be used, and even driverless vehicles on a cable, controlled from a safe place, are planned for the near future. “But they also require high investment costs and are only profitable for large companies.”
“We only achieve top wines with a lot of effort by hand,” says Niewodniczanski from Wiltingen, where up to 120 people are busy harvesting on the steep slopes in autumn. However, staff are becoming increasingly difficult to obtain. In addition to quality, the winegrowers would also have to rely on more sustainability and new technologies such as drones in the challenging viticulture on the steep slopes.
Sophisticated marketing
“Viticulture on steep slopes is a big challenge, but the quality of the wine makes up for everything,” Kauer sums up. The winegrowers could make the special terroir of the steep slopes tasteable, says Büscher. You should therefore also write steep slope wine or terraced wine on the label.
The marketing is demanding, reports Kauer. The high production costs and the lower production volumes required prices of around 15 euros per bottle. This applies in particular to companies that mainly or exclusively produce wines from steep slopes. The target group is primarily “gourmets and connoisseurs, the advanced in the world of wine consumers”.
Source: Stern
