20213041_WGDE2021_ENGL

Eva and Alexander Eisele have converted
their entire business to organic farming
love they have for their work and how
aware they are of their pioneering status.
“We completely restructured our business,”
Alex Eisele says. “We now have completely
different clientele and of course also
different prices. But if you want to preserve
these terraced, steep vineyard sites, there is
simply no other way.”
A few parcels within the Hessigheim
portion of the Käsbergs already lie fallow.
In their place, however, there are new
plantings in the valley. “Hectarage
transfer” is what Karsten Faschian calls
this, a further piece of the puzzle of this
complex viti-socio-cultural mess. On the
one hand there are subsidies for the manual
labour in those steep slopes, on the other
the EU gives grants – under the banner of
increasing competitiveness – when terraces
are abandoned for more efficient farming
in the flat valley. “That’s just crazy after
200 years of potato farming.”
Growing grapes in the terraced, steep
slopes of the Neckar – is wondrously
beautiful, perplexing, bittersweet.
Preserving this unique cultural landscape
is a mammoth task. That it is absolutely
worth the effort, however, is clear to
anyone who ever stood on the Neckar at
daybreak, watching the first rays of
sunshine move down the slope, from vine
to vine.
INFO
Read more about this author in our Tasting
Panel chapter on page 12.
WÜRTTEMBERG WINE REGION
Growing area
approx. 11,400 hectares
Administrative Split
6 districts (Bereich), 17 collective sites
(Grosslage), 210 single sites (Einzellagen)
Soils
Triassic formations (Keuper, sandstone,
limestone)
Important Grape Varieties
Kerner, Lemberger, Riesling, Rollonger,
Schwarzriesling (aka Pinot Meunier),
Spätburgunder
Verband
Weinbauverband Württemberg e. V.
Hirschbergstrasse 2, 74189 Weinsberg
www.wvwue.de
Photos: Photography was provided
610 falstaff Wine Guide Germany 2021