Wellness for the Vineyards

In spring, even before the vines begin to bud, the first seasonal workers are already busy tending the vines in the Saar vineyards. At the famous Scharzhofberg, the focus is not on pruning or tilling the soil. Instead, you see the workers bent over the vines, massaging the wood with their hands just a few centimetres above the root zone.

Egon Müller IV, owner of the cult winery Egon Müller – Scharzhof in Wiltingen, came up with the idea around ten years ago when he struck up a conversation with a Tajima cattle breeder at a neighbouring stand during a consumer fair in Kobe, Japan. “The animals are traditionally pampered with massages by their keepers. At Kobe cattle, this leads to increased blood flow to the tissues and an improvement in meat quality. Why should the same principle not work for our Riesling?” Müller asked himself.

The very next year, he had half the vines in a selected plot on the Scharzhofberg massaged. “We vinified the wines from the massaged and non-massaged vines separately. The work paid off,” says Müller, summarising the results of his field trial.

Winemakers in the neighbourhood have long since copied the method, and even colleagues in neighbouring wine-growing regions and countries have taken notice. In Austria, for example. “At first, our neighbours laughed at us,” says Lucas Franz Pichler of the F. X. Pichler Winery in Dürnstein. “But by the third season, we noticed that the grapes were ripening much more evenly.”

Whether the massages really work remains scientifically controversial. The massage technique is what matters, emphasises Egon Müller. Of particular importance are gentle circular movements starting from the ground and moving upwards, “to promote the vine’s energy flow and not disrupt it”.

In the Nahe region, this is referred to as the Energy Spiral, involving massage movements around the vine. In southern Styria, however, winegrowers prefer the Growth Stroke, in which the hands are slowly guided straight upwards from the base of the roots, one after the other, in the four cardinal directions.

Meanwhile, Demeter-certified estates have also adopted this practice and use special massage oils made from minerals and herbs. Andreas Schumann from the Odinstal winery in Wachenheim goes one step further and enriches his oils with homeopathic doses of his wines from previous vintages, which are intended to serve as an “aromatic memory”.

A graduated female winemaker from Wehlen Uferallee, who wishes to remain anonymous, is taking a completely different approach. She massages the vines simply with a mixture of spring water and ground slate, thereby drawing a link to the concept of terroir.

In some vineyards in the Southern Palatinate, music plays whilst the vines are being massaged – preferably classical music or gentle jazz. “The vines are sensitive to the atmosphere around them,” says Hansjörg Rebholz of the Ökonomierat Rebholz winery in Siebeldingen, who also has warm basalt stones scattered on the ground during the massage to “energetically charge the root zone”.

Anyone wishing to drink a wine specifically made from the harvest of massaged vines will find what they are looking for at the Knipser winery in Laumersheim. However, the high labour costs are clearly reflected in the price of the “Cuvée Relax”, a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot. Nevertheless, the wine, strictly limited to 120000 bottles, has to be allocated. Queues of managers made redundant from German car manufacturers, looking for investment opportunities for their multi-million-euro severance packages, are forming. “We do not want to drive up prices,” Werner Knipser reassures us. “If they throw in a Maybach on top, that will do just fine.”

To put a stop to copycats, the Deutsches Weininstitut plans to introduce a certification scheme and an official quality seal. Each vine must be massaged by hand at least twelve times per season. Workers employed in the vineyard are also to undergo training to become certified vine therapists. The Industrie- und Handelskammer intends to offer relevant training courses in the near future.

A winegrower from Rheinhessen finds this too elitist. Klaus-Peter Keller from Flörsheim-Dalsheim fears massive price rises: “I want everyone to be able to afford my wines in future too.” He is currently testing an automated solution. Modified vacuum cleaners drive through the Dalsheim Hubacker vineyard at night, gently kneading the vine trunks. The prototypes already work surprisingly well, as long as they do not try to massage any hares passing by.

Vine massage is now being scientifically studied at Geisenheim University. In a large-scale research project, the individual massage techniques are being combined with new, adapted vine training systems reminiscent of yoga poses, such as the Relaxed Lyre, the Meditative Pergola or the Curved Single-Post.

Whilst the sceptics are still debating, many winegrowers are already convinced: the future of fine wine lies not only in the terroir, but also in a good massage.