Wine growers' cooperative Neckarsulm-Gundelsheim
The Neckarsulm-Gundelsheim eG winegrowers' cooperative was founded in 1855 and merged into the Heilbronn-Erlenbach-Weinsberg cooperative winery in 2007 . Until then, it was the oldest still existing winegrowers' cooperative in Germany and probably also in the world. The aim of this cooperative was the communal pressing and marketing of their products. It emerged from the viticulture association, which was founded in 1834.
history
The viticulture in has Neckarsulm a centuries-old tradition. As early as the 8th century, there were extensive vineyards on the lower Neckar . And at the end of the 13th century there were vineyards on the southern slopes of the Scheuerberg and Hungerberg. After Neckarsulm passed to the Kingdom of Württemberg in 1805/1806, the place had four wine presses : the castle press, the large press, the small press and the Amorbach court press. The last two were destroyed in 1945.
The guild of winegrowers in Württemberg was abolished on April 22, 1828. A few years earlier, the first independent vineyard associations had been founded in Stuttgart and Heilbronn. In Neckarsulm on October 28, 1834, the hotelier Anton Victor Brunner, the wine grower Wilhelm Fischer and the city caretaker Fleiner and five other Neckarsulmers founded a wine gardening association. This had set itself the task of promoting viticulture by purchasing and distributing suitable vines in the suitable locations. At that time there were around 178 hectares of vineyards. The eventful history of the Neckarsulm Weingärtnerverein was documented in a chronicle from its foundation in 1834. In addition to all the important events of the current wine year, this chronicle also contained notes on politics and the economy and is therefore a great history book about Neckarsulm.
In 1855, the "Association for the preparation and processing of wine must" emerged from this vineyard association. Until 2007 it was the oldest still existing winegrowing cooperative in Germany and probably also in the world. The aim of this cooperative was the communal pressing and marketing of their products. The basic idea was that they no longer wanted to submit to the price dictates of the wine buyers, who often set the prices for the wine arbitrarily. The quality concept was also important and that good pay could only be demanded for correspondingly good wine. This also included, for example, cultivation in the “pure sentence”, which means that each variety was planted unmixed and the appropriate locations for the more noble grape varieties were still necessary. In the year 1855 130 members joined together in the Weingärtnergenossenschaft, in 1856 it had 157 members and in 1862 there were already 300 members. On Boxing Day, St. Stephen's Day, the vineyard workers meet to read their chronicle. On such occasions, a silver drinking butte donated in 1834, which holds about a bottle, also circles. On the front of this, above the portrait of Noah , the biblical story according to the first winemaker , the verse is engraved:
"Father Noah, wine inventor,
your Neckarsulm children will
surely be
grateful for their wine to be collected in the butter."
The cooperative sold considerable quantities of wine shortly after it was founded; in the 15 years from its foundation to 1869, sales averaged 105,000 liters per year. Depending on the harvest, the sales volume fluctuated strongly: in 1861 only 27,000 liters were sold, in 1868 it was 285,000 liters. By switching from the traditional production of Schiller wine to single-origin products, the cooperative had a differentiated range and was able to achieve excellent revenues.
The efforts to achieve the best possible quality of the wines were recognized by awards at national and international exhibitions after 1850. For example in 1857 at the Cannstatter Volksfest and in 1896 at the German agricultural exhibition in Cannstatt . At the last-mentioned exhibition, the Neckarsulm Clevner was named the best of 34 wines from Württemberg on display. Further awards in London, Paris. Zurich and Frankfurt followed. Delegations came to Neckarsulm from abroad to study the viticulture culture and the cooperative organization: from Hungary in 1875, later from Transylvania and in 1886 from Tbilisi in the Caucasus.
From 1923 this "Association" became the Weingärtner-Gesellschaft GmbH and since 1939 it has been the Weingärtnergenossenschaft. In 1956, the majority of the Gundelsheim wine growers joined the Neckarsulm cooperative.
The Neckarsulms wine growers have recently received awards for their wines. For example, the Weinbauverband Württemberg e. V. awarded ten gold, twelve silver and seven bronze prize coins on the occasion of the Württemberg wine awards. In November 2006, the Neckarsulm-Gundelsheim eG winegrowers' cooperative received the honorary award from the Württemberg winegrowing association for constant outstanding performance at the state wine awards. In 2006 alone, 13 gold coins were awarded to Neckarsulm and Gundelsheimer Gewächse.
On September 20, 2006, the general assembly of the Neckarsulm-Gundelsheim wine-growing cooperative decided with a majority of 79% to cooperate with the Heilbronn WG from the beginning of 2007 . After a three-year cooperation phase, the merger with the WG Heilbronn will take place. The reason for this step were economic problems of the smaller flat share in Neckarsulm. At the end of February 2007 it was announced that the merger would be completed in June 2007. On June 18, 2007, 98.5% of the wengers of the Neckarsulm-Gundelsheim winegrowing cooperative approved the merger with the Heilbronn-Erlenbach-Weinsberg cooperative winery. After the members of the WG Heilbronn-Erlenbach-Weinsberg also voted in favor of a merger with 93% at a general meeting on June 27, 2007, the merger took place retrospectively as of January 1, 2007.
Companies
The Weingärtnergenossenschaft Neckarsulm-Gundelsheim eG recently had 70 members who cultivated around 45 hectares of productive vineyards, 13 hectares of which in Gundelsheim. It was located in the former castle press of the Teutonic Order Castle Neckarsulm and managed other farm buildings such as the former tithe barn. Over 600,000 liters of wine can be stored in the castle cellar.
Of the wines sold:
- 44% to wine wholesalers and chain stores,
- 42% to end users,
- 9% in restaurants and
- 5% to other resellers.
The cooperative delivered throughout Germany and offered some specialties , for example the Muskattrollinger Weißherbst and various barrique wines. With the new brands Villa Sulmana (after the old name Neckarsulms ) and Ganzhorn (in honor of Wilhelm Ganzhorn , who was chief magistrate here from 1859 to 1878), she also had wines for real wine connoisseurs and upscale gastronomy in the program.
Single layers and grape varieties
The growing areas of the Weingärtnergenossenschaft belonged to the large Staufenberg site within the Württemberg wine-growing region . These are the individual layers Scheuerberg (on the Württemberger Weinstrasse ) and in Gundelsheim the individual layers Himmelreich:
- Scheuerberg single layer:
- Total size of the site: 75 ha
- Main direction: west to south
- Height above sea level: 160 to 330 m
- Main slope: moderate to steep
- Main grape varieties: Trollinger, Schwarzriesling, Heroldrebe, Riesling, Kerner
- Soil type: Mainly heavy weathered soils made of gypsum keuper , Lettenkeuper and reed sandstone
- Individual location Himmelreich (at the end of the former Swabian Wine Route ):
- Total size of the site: 40 ha
- Main direction: southwest to south
- Height above sea level: 155 to 320 m
- Main slope: moderately to strongly sloping, as well as wall terraces
- Main grape varieties: white wine (Riesling, Silvaner, Müller-Thurgau) red wine (Lemberger, Trollinger, Schwarzriesling)
- Soil type: shell limestone weathered soil, loamy clay
The red wine varieties Trollinger , Lemberger , Cabernet Sauvignon , Cabernet Mitos , Dornfelder , Pinot Noir , Velvet Red , Black Riesling and Heroldrebe grow on around 75% of these areas . On the remaining 25% of the white varieties White Riesling , Kerner , Müller-Thurgau , Pinot Blanc , Pinot Gris and Traminer .
literature
- Adelmann, Birmele, Groenewold, Heuschele: Württemberg - Vinothek of the German vineyards , Seewaldverlag, Stuttgart-Degerloch 1981
- Wolfram Angerbauer : Viticulture and Pressing in Neckarsulm , Ed. Kreissparkasse Heilbronn, Neckarsulm 1986
- Team of authors (editor: Barbara Griesinger): Neckarsulm. The history of a city , Ed. Stadt Neckarsulm, Konrad Theiss Verlag, Stuttgart 1992, ISBN 3-8062-0883-2
- Carlheinz Gräter : Württemberg Wine - Landscape, History, Culture , DRW-Verlag, Leinfelden-Echterdingen 1993
- Team of authors: 150 years of wine and singing (Festschrift for the 150th anniversary of: MGV (choral society) CONCORDIA 1855 Neckarsulm e.V. and Weingärtnergenossenschaft Neckarsulm-Gundelsheim eG), Neckarsulm 2005
- Otto Baer: Becoming, growing and working of the Württemberg wine growers' cooperatives , Wiesbaden 1979
swell
- ↑ Wolfram Angerbauer in: Neckarsulm. The history of a city , Stuttgart 1992, pages 89 to 98 and 225 to 240
- ^ Herbert Kaletta and Kilian Krauth: The course is set in the direction of Heilbronn . In: Heilbronner Voice of September 22, 2006, p. 26
- ^ Kilian Krauth: WG wedding probably already in June. In: Heilbronner Voice of February 27, 2007, p. 38
- ↑ Kilian Krauth: Wengerter say yes to flat share marriage . In: Heilbronner Voice of June 28, 2007, p. 36
- ↑ Stefanie Pfäffle: 120 new members thanks to the winery merger , In: echo am Sonntag of July 1, 2007, p. 3
- ↑ Team of authors: Festschrift for the 150th anniversary of the Neckarsulm-Gundelsheim eG Weingärtnergenossenschaft , Neckarsulm 2005, p. 51
- ↑ Team of authors: Württemberg - Vinothek der Deutschen Weinberg-Lagen , Stuttgart-Degerloch 1981, p. 156 and 160
Coordinates: 49 ° 11 '31.4 " N , 9 ° 13' 20.7" E