MAINZ, Germany (dpa) – Early summer in Germany is starting to boost the earnings of many vintners after their hard winter- and spring-season work.
Their wineries are now filling up with people who are not only tasting the wines, but also taking home some wines like Merlot and Chardonnay – vintages which do not belong to the traditional German wines.But now Germany’s wines are in a process of transition, and younger vintners are changing with the times. They are going for quality instead of quantity, knowing that they can count on an increasingly knowledgeable clientele.“Being informed about wines in now in,” says Steffen Schindler, spokesman for the German Wine Institute in Mainz. People can show off by knowing the right wine to go with a meal and inside tips about wineries.There are now a large number of seminars, and travels abroad have educated people about wines, Schindler said, noting that people have also learned that a good wine has its price.The new generation of young vintners have learned their trade not only just on their parents’ wineries or in vocational schools, but have also gained experience working abroad. They have learned the value of clever marketing and more attractive label designs.The interior decor of the wine tasting rooms at the wineries is also changing to modern designs and is no longer of the rustic dark- timbered style of bygone times.Dieter Braatz, deputy editor-in-chief of two German gourmet magazines, “Der Feinschmecker” and “Wein Gourmet” published in Hamburg, also notes that the young vintners pursue a completely different marketing strategy than did their parents, among others in the way they approach their customers.But above all, the new generation of German vintners is putting emphasis on quality – a trend which Braatz can confirm.A stroll through their vineyards makes this clear. The pruning of the vines in the winter shows right away whether a vintner is going for quantity or quality. The new generation is pruning the vines more strongly, thereby deciding for quality instead of quantity.In some cases, pruning might be undertaken again even in the summer in order to prevent an excessive harvest. For older vintners, this is a frivolous act.Just how differently the older and younger vintners go about their work is sometimes clear within the same family. Schindler knows of one in which the father works according to traditional methods while his daughter is putting emphasis on higher quality.And, she is taking in three to four marks (1.33-1.77 dollars) more per bottle than her father is with his wine and is more successful, Schindler says.Many young vintners are also working together and in coming up with new marketing ideas. One example is how a group has come up with a dry Riesling sparkling wine to compete against the Italian sparkling wine Prosecco.The young vintners are also either trying out new grape varieties or are using tried but proven high-quality grapes. A black Riesling means a vintner likes to experiment while varieties like Silvaner or Rivaner point to a traditional approach.Those winemakers who are taking master craftsmen courses at vocational schools also work together, and have set up associations like the “Silvaner forum” and “Pro Riesling”.The wine institute’s Schindler says that there has been an extreme improvement in the quality of German wines over the past ten years, while gourmet magazine editor Braatz says that in the past, “dry” and “sour” were the same thing in Germany. Now, thanks to the work of the young vintners this is no longer the case.In these times of BSE and other problems with industrially processed food products, the young vintners can also count on one further trend: more and more customers want to buy directly from the producers.At a winery, this means they can study the list of wines and try out a few, while getting tips from the vintner about growing methods and the best ways of storing the wine.
