On Viticulture and the Wine Trade in the Adige Valley

Austrian Monarchy.

From the Adige Valley. (On viticulture and the wine trade. Conclusion.) Tracts of land that yield a very poor wine product and are especially exposed to the ravages of insects, particularly in the valley plains, would perhaps lose nothing of their yield by abandoning viticulture, if meadows and arable fields were laid out there instead, and especially if fine fruit, so sought after abroad, and mulberry trees were planted. On the latter, as in Italy, vines could be trained that would sufficiently cover the proprietor's own domestic wine needs. In addition, processing costs would be significantly reduced, and with the high cost of hay and grain and the secure market for silk and fine fruit, which moreover finds customers abroad, the revenue from the produce would certainly not be less than that of wine.

To raise the quality of the product, more careful handling of the fruit would certainly be required, but the aim should above all be to ensure the wine's durability. The preparation in the Austrian manner introduced in many places, the so-called Krätzer, could not be recommended highly enough in this regard, since this type of wine, especially the white, improves from year to year through longer cellar aging rather than spoiling. To this, of course, belongs a large supply of casks and the means to let capital lie idle for an extended period, though in fact nothing is lost, as the higher price of the wine compensates for the loss of interest. We do not consider the artificial production of wines, such as Champagne, advisable, for the reason that every grape variety has its own distinctive character, and the addition of chemical agents always yields only a poor imitation of the original product.

On the other hand, we see no reason why, through careful selection of the grapes and attentive management of the fermentation process, one could not produce from our Tramin, Terlan, and Rentsch wines a product that could take its place on the wine list of connoisseurs alongside French, Rhine, and Hungarian wines.

Once one is able to supply excellent wines, their price will rise of its own accord. But to raise the price of medium-quality wines, and not leave the small estate owner at the mercy of the wine merchants' arbitrariness, the first condition would be the abolition of the St. James price and the securing of sales. To bring this about, an enterprise gigantic for our land would have to be brought into being, an idea already frequently discussed: namely a giant wine enterprise founded by the association of the majority of estate owners, which the others would necessarily have to follow; a wine business that would purchase the product of the individual shareholders and then sell it monopolistically to consumers.

If a large number of estate owners were to unite, and each were to take up a proportionate amount of shares according to his output by establishing a mortgage on his estate or by paying cash, and if the association were then to purchase the product of its shareholders at fixed prices with regard to quality—prices determined by a committee of the company—and then establish large wine houses in various locations in German Tyrol; if, in abundant years, through appropriate handling, the reserves were kept for leaner years instead of being squandered, we believe that this could restore to the smaller estate owners, in particular, a return commensurate with their landed and working capital. One should by no means imagine that the price of wine in German Tyrol would rise extraordinarily, since the tavern guest could obtain it for almost the same price, and only the average bourgeois profit of the innkeepers would fall from 60 to 80 percent to 30 to 40 percent, with them still doing quite profitable business. It would suffice to maintain the average price of wine between 10 and 15 florins per Yhr in order to pay the estate owners prices between 6 and 10 florins per Yhr of Praschlet, whereas now, in many a bountiful year, the wine grower in Überetsch and Meran must give it away for a thaler. To carry out this idea, very considerable capital would be required to procure a sufficient number of casks, cellars, etc., and to be in a position to withhold stocks; however, we believe that a landowner's shareholding amounting to the value of a single year's harvest would suffice, and that, to operate effectively, assuming a production of 100,000 Yhren of Praschlet at an average value of 5 florins, half a million would be enough, which might not be so difficult to raise through subscription, especially since at present, owing to the redemption of land charges, much paper money is accumulated in the land, which everyone would gladly invest securely at 4 percent. That the profits of the enterprise would benefit the participants goes without saying. We now generally see producers of natural products unite to maintain prices rather than undercutting one another, and no one should truly begrudge the vineyard owner in South Tyrol for wishing to earn 4 percent interest on his capital and to keep the price of wine, while all other foodstuffs are rising, at the level it held on average 40 and more years ago, thereby making it possible for him to survive. Let anyone who travels through the Adige region not merely superficially convince himself of the truth of these factual conditions, and we only hope that someone will put forward more practical ideas for relief, but above all we wish that an impulse be given to remedy in some way the thoroughly pitiable conditions, particularly of the smaller owners in Überetsch, who, overburdened with mortgage debts, despite all their diligence often have to surrender their property after a year to another, losing all the labor invested in it. One need only ask how many tax terms the municipality of Eppan must levy annually for the most essential poor relief, and how many Kaltern would have to levy were it not for the abundant income from charitable foundations, and one will be convinced that there the beatus ille, qui procul negotiis paterna rura bobus exercet suis is often a bitter irony.