Viticulture in Wettingen
The viticulture in Wettingen includes the vineyards of the municipality of Wettingen in canton Aargau and their professional wine production and wine sales. The wine-growing cooperative founded in 1951 is still a visible benefactor of a centuries-old tradition. The vineyards are located exclusively on the southwest slope of the Lägern , facing the Limmat .
history
Viticulture has been practiced in Wettingen since ancient times. The viticulture engineer Hans Hasler (1895–1976) would like to «describe the vine for our northern Alpine regions as a companion of Roman culture. With the Romans , the vine moved to the southern slopes of what is now the Swiss Central Plateau , even down the Rhine to southern and central Germany. " He admits in the section a "development and status of the Zurich winegrowing" that locally previously wild vines were grown petrified Rebsamen in tertiary layers proved. He suspects private use of individual vines for personal consumption, not necessarily already a wine production.
The first documentary mention of viticulture in Aargau is in the year 1023. On January 22nd, 1130, Baron Lütold von Regensberg gave the abbot of Einsiedeln monastery, among other goods, also the vineyards mentioned in writing, which proves that the cultivation of vines in the vicinity of Weiningen and driving was already common practice back then.
In Wettingen, viticulture is closely related to the Wettingen Monastery, which was founded in 1227 . The saying has been passed down from the Cistercians there : "The lords of the monastery ze Wettingen, they liked to drink settigen."
Various legal disputes about the Lägernberg between the local monastery and the St. Blasien monastery as well as the church lords of Baden testify to the importance that this mountain must have had. The viticulture did not extend along the southern slope as it is today, it went from the Schartenfels in the northwest to the outermost Letten in the southeast, on the southern side of the upstream Sulperg and the then free area of the "Wettinger Feld" to close to the monastery district. There were also vineyards in the Bernau towards Tägerhard directly on the Limmat .
The largest area under inventory is assumed to be between 1830 and 1880. For the year 1860, 85.32 hectares were measured, which were divided into 542 parcels and 262 owners. The phylloxera plague did not stop there either. From 1905 it occupied about half of the cultivated area.
Until 1957, when the wine-growing cooperative was founded, a vine had been part of Wettingen's coat of arms for over 100 years.
cultivation
Until the beginning of the 20th century, the vines were grown in the so-called scatter rate and without any orderly row spacing. The density of the vines and the vines can no longer be assessed today. At this time the company switched to solitary stick construction, later to wire training. In contrast to today, regular tillage was carried out with hoe and plow, which promoted soil erosion . It was not until the 1960s that they switched to vineyard greening. After the initial loosening of the soil and green sowing in spring, the loosening of the soil is now left to nature - with the result that many herbs and grasses can be found between the vines. Since the end of the 1980s, the company has followed the guidelines of the Federal Research Institute in Wädenswil and has operated integrated production .
Of the once large area of 85 hectares, 14,492 hectares remained in 2018 after plot after plot of land gave way to development. The vineyards are located 420 to 520 m above sea level only on the slopes of the Lägern towards the Limmat. They are considered predestined for red wine. This is why the Pinot Noir (75%) predominates as the main grape variety, 10 percent are planted with Riesling × Sylvaner , the remaining 15% with specialties such as Diolinoir , Malbec , Grauburgunder or R Noiseling .
cooperative
The wine cooperative founded on October 12, 1951 succeeded an earlier, inactive wine cooperative that was liquidated on September 13 of the same year. The founding protocol shows 43 founding members; first president was August Unverricht, cellar master was Emil Voser. The cooperative was partly financed with shares of 50 francs each.
For the first few years there was no success due to various weather conditions. 1956 was the worst result with 607 kg of grapes and 452 liters of wine. It was not until the 1958 vintage that considerable quantities could be brought in for the first time. 16,827 liters of wine could be won and brought the comrades income for the first time. The summer of the century in 1959 produced 23,156 liters at up to 95 degrees Oechsle . The quality was also obviously satisfactory in these years, as the demand increased considerably. For the first time in 1964, three gold medals could be won at the Expo 64 in Lausanne . After the years of basic investment, profits could be distributed continuously from 1965.
Today, most of the wine is sold directly to private customers, while in the 1970s the relationship between private customers and gastronomy was more or less balanced. While in 1952 the 7/10 liter bottle cost CHF 2.50, 50 years later it was CHF 12. The comparison of the quantities of wine sold is also interesting: in the first 30 years, sales of just under CHF 3 million were achieved at an average price per bottle of CHF 5.70 (48% of the total volume in the first few years up to 2000), in the last 20 years up to 2000 (52% of all years) there were 7.2 million CHF sales. Taking into account the rise in prices, the 7/10 liter bottle would have to cost just under CHF 17 today, which could be prevented by rationalization.
The central point of contact is the Rote Trotte , the last of the eight previously operated trotters in Wettingen.
Trotting
All trotters were set up at the instigation of the Wettingen monastery, which also exercised the right to trot. After the secularization of the monastery, all trots went to new owners:
- Schartentrotte (purchase price in 1859: 4200 CHF) Wine was pressed for the last time in 1938
- Rote Trotte (purchase price in 1859: CHF 2725) has been owned by the Steimer family since 1943.
- New Trotte (purchase price 1859 4015 Fr.) stands as the Red Trotte under monument protection , but is no longer used for wine production since the early 1900s. Owned by the municipality.
- Obere Trotte (purchase price in 1859: 2537 Fr.) was converted into a farmhouse (Bergstrasse 36) and can still be used as a Trotte until 1950.
- Letten-Trotte (purchase price 1859: 1305 Fr.) no more winemaking since 1874 (Empertstrasse 11); Half of it demolished in 1890, followed by installation of an apartment and a stable.
- Salzbergtrotte (purchase price 1859: 1866 Fr.) In 1880 the Trotte had to give way for the construction of a new residential building (corner Sulzbergstrasse-Bifangstrasse). The old archway is built into the property at Bifangstrasse 3.
- Berg-Trödtlin (Bernhard-Trotte) (purchase price 1905: 9,300 CHF) was converted into an old people's asylum in 1905 and is still integrated into the St. Bernhard old people's center today.
- The eighth trot is on the monastery grounds in the so-called long building (→ List of monuments in Wettingen , there WET023 ).
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Hans Hasler: Swiss viticulture with special consideration of the Zurich conditions. University of Zurich-Verlag 1907, p. 17.
- ↑ Fahr Monastery, Viticulture , Homepage
- ↑ a b c d e f Paul Berz: 50 years of the Wettingen wine cooperative. Self-published in 2001.
- ↑ Grape harvest control 2018 Canton Aargau. (PDF, 2.4 MB) Agricultural Center Liebegg, 2019, accessed on June 18, 2019 .
- ^ Sales Zehnder: Our vineyard. In: Wettingen yesterday and today , Festschrift for the inauguration of the town hall in 1959, Wettingen 1959
- ^ History of the St. Bernhard retirement center