in the middle
The number of small German wineries in particular is falling rapidly. Eight young winegrowers from the Middle Rhine are therefore joining forces. They want to get away from the basic attitude that only competition stimulates business.
Julia and Maximilian Lambrich drag benches across a path in the vineyards of Oberwesel. The siblings are out early in the morning to set up their tasting stand, just like the other members of their young winegrowers’ association. People are scurrying between the vines, there is clattering and banging, refrigerators and grills are being filled.
Together, the young winegrowers organize a wine hike between the vines, a tourist highlight in the region. Julia Lambrich puts wine glasses on a counter and says: “There are a total of six stands, these are those of the young winegrowing families. They are distributed over a distance of three and a half kilometers, and you can hike them – take a short break everywhere, relax a bit Take a break and enjoy a little wine.”
Many providers make a place attractive
Eight young winegrowers from the Middle Rhine have joined forces to form the “Jungwinzer Oberwesel” association to organize events, make their wines better known and to promote the Middle Rhine wine-growing region as a whole. In conversations with them, the word “together” keeps popping up: they don’t see each other as competitors, but as partners. Julia Lambrich, who studied international wine business, says: “Our university professor always said: ‘The competition is not in the same place, because a place is only attractive if there are many suppliers’.”
During the wine hike, the winegrowers not only offer their guests their own wines from the respective family business, but also a community wine, a “club wine” so to speak. Maximilian Lambrich, chairman of the young winemakers, explains that the wine is made in the premises of his family winery, since the association does not have its own cellar. “That’s why everyone delivers their Riesling grapes on one day during the autumn harvest, and so the wine can then be made together here. We taste it together, accompany the fermentation, discuss how the wine should ultimately be bottled. ”
Fewer and fewer smaller wineries
The number of wineries in Germany has fallen drastically in recent years. The change is described on the website of the Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture:
15,200 companies grew wine in Germany in 2020. Within the last ten years, the number of wineries has decreased by about a quarter. There are fewer and fewer farms in particular. In 2010 there were still around 6,000 farms, the 2020 agricultural census only counted 3,600.
In contrast, the number of larger companies remained stable. Very large farms would even have increased. This makes it clear that the structure of German viticulture is developing towards fewer companies with larger vineyards.
Tough competition for the wine rack
Ernst Büscher from the German Wine Institute confirms the concentration process. In order to be successful in the market today and to work economically efficiently, a company needs a certain size, he says. “Germany is one of the largest wine importing countries in the world. The competition on the wine shelf is correspondingly high,” says Büscher.
“When winemakers come together in groups, they increase their visibility in a competitive environment with a common message and community actions, which ultimately benefits all members.” Nationwide there are around 25 associations of winegrowers in almost all wine-growing regions. Ten of the associations had only younger members.
Strenuous work in the steep slopes
The Oberweseler young winegrowers appreciate their cooperation in the association. In addition to joint events, they also help each other in the vineyard. “It is often the case that the machines have become very expensive to buy,” says the young winemaker Anna Hoffmann. If a colleague has one machine and you have the other, you exchange ideas, so to speak. “Can I use it once or can you drive for me and I’ll do it for you. That’s also common practice now.”
Winegrowing is particularly strenuous on the Middle Rhine with its steep slopes: 85 percent of the vineyards here are steep slopes with a slope of more than 30 percent. This means that the Mittelrhein wine-growing region has the highest proportion of steep slopes in Germany, explains Büscher.
“More than a job”
The wine hike has now begun above Oberwesel. At 30 degrees, the young winegrowers are waiting for the hikers at their stands. The first are already panting up the paths, past the vines, on which many grapes are now hanging just before the harvest.
Julia and Maximilian Lambrich are beaming, filling glasses and chatting with their guests. They have not regretted becoming winegrowers and following the path of their parents. Maximilian, 27, says: “It’s more than a job. It’s a real passion that’s behind it.”