Winemaker Sommerach
| Winemaker Sommerach | |
|---|---|
| legal form | eG |
| founding | 1901 |
| Seat | Sommerach |
| management | Frank Dietrich |
| Branch | Wine trade |
| Website | www.winzer-sommerach.de |
Winzer Sommerach (founded as Winzerverein Sommerach , later Winzergenossenschaft Sommerach eG , operated at times under Winzerkeller Sommerach ) is the name of the oldest winegrowers' cooperative in the Franconian region . It was founded in 1901 in the Lower Franconian community of Sommerach .
history
The establishment of the cooperative has its origins in the crisis in Franconian viticulture. In addition to the bad weather in the second half of the 19th century, the appearance of phylloxera led to reduced yields. In addition, the low wine prices at this time put a strain on the people in Sommerach, who had made a living from viticulture along the Mainschleife for centuries. Many companies were threatened with financial ruin, also because Weinpanscher had shaken people's trust.
The Raiffeisenkassen tried to counteract this development and looked at the newly emerging winegrowers' associations in the larger wine-growing areas on the Rhine and Moselle . On December 18, 1901, the Raiffeisen Association invited the winemakers from Sommerach, Nordheim am Main , Escherndorf , Fahr and Obereisenheim to a gathering at the Sommeracher Gasthaus zum Schwan . Here the attendees were told the goals of the winegrowers' cooperatives, whereupon several Sommerach winegrowers agreed to found one.
As the first cooperative of winegrowers in Bavaria on the right bank of the Rhine (the Palatinate was then part of the kingdom ), the Sommerach winegrowers' association was entered in the register of the Schweinfurt District Court on December 27, 1901 . Initially, the cooperative had 36 members who built an area of almost 130 acres (around 32 hectares). The actual founding meeting took place on February 26, 1902 in Sommerach. With Luitpold Baumann , the cooperative had an early sponsor in politics.
Initially, the comrades were paid for with loans ; they received between 8.50 and 9.50 marks per hundredweight of grapes. The 1902 vintage was already being sold with great sales, so that the number of members soon rose to 71. In the beginning, the cooperative rented a cellar, and they quickly acquired a garden plot outside of Sommerach on Nordheimer Strasse. On September 20, 1903, the house of the wine cooperative was inaugurated by the former Sommerach pastor Emil Kempf. The erection was preceded by an exit wave, because the costs of the construction were set very high. The house was modeled on the building of the Markelsheim cooperative.
| List of CEOs | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Surname | Term of office | ||||||
| Kaspar Wolfahrt | 1901-1927 | ||||||
| Peter Erhard | 1927-1946 | ||||||
| Valentin Kestler | 1946-1954 | ||||||
| Gregor Baumann | 1954-1963 | ||||||
| Josef Drescher | 1964-1997 | ||||||
| Kurt Münch | 1997-2006 | ||||||
| Frank Dietrich | -today | ||||||
The cooperative was initially opposed by the established wine trade . The cooperative then increased its advertising efforts and presented itself at trade fairs and exhibitions in the capital Munich and the Palatinate wine-growing regions. At the same time, pest control was modernized and one of the first companies to use sprays . This saved the vintages from downy mildew .
In the Weimar Republic there were major problems during inflation, in 1923 a hectolitre of wine cost 8 trillion Reichsmarks . In 1932 the cooperative consisted of 75 members and around 35 hectares were cultivated. In the same year, a wine bar was opened in Sommerach. The cooperative continued to exist during the National Socialist dictatorship and was probably forcibly attached to the Reichsnährstand .
After the Second World War , the cooperative took part in the first Volkach Wine Festival in 1949 . In 1952 the name was changed to Winzergenossenschaft Sommerach. In 1953 the vines began to be grafted against pests by grafting them onto more robust vines. The cooperative also introduced other technical innovations. In 1960 the largest vineyard irrigation system in Bavaria was obtained. At the same time, the number of members rose sharply, with 31 new winemakers joining the cooperative in 1959/1960.
This expansion made a new building necessary, which could not be built until 1971. Now up to 800,000 liters of wine could be stored in the larger cellar . In 1974 the head office on Nordheimer Strasse was rebuilt again. Larger offices were already available in 1967. During this renovation, the cooperative building lost its lantern and its status as a monument . Meanwhile, the number of winemakers in the cooperative had grown to 162 in 1975.
After the company buildings were expanded again in the 1980s and 1990s, the cooperative was renamed "Winzerkeller Sommerach". Already in 1969 there had been a vote on the connection of the winegrowers' cooperative to the larger regional cooperative , in which this proposal was rejected. However, it was now time to include the winemakers from the Oberschwarzach community in the cooperative.
Wines and sites
The Sommeracher cooperative sold around 1.3 million liters of wine in 2000. The turnover at that time was 9,000,000 DM . In 1990, 167 hectares of vineyards were cultivated by the members of the cooperative. Currently (2019) 90 families are represented in the cooperative. Areas of 196 ha are cultivated. The grape varieties grown are diverse and range from Silvaner and Müller-Thurgau to Sauvignon Blanc and Cabernet .
The cooperative members' vines are planted in a total of ten vineyards in the Maintal and Steigerwald foreland. The Katzenkopf location in Sommerach is the most valuable of these.
Awards (selection)
The cooperative has often been awarded a wide variety of prices for the wine produced here. In addition, it was named the best German cooperative in 2009.
- Bavarian State Prize for Viticulture (2002, 2005, 2009, 2011)
- IWSC London (2010)
- German Wine Producer of the year (2012)
- 3 × Gold Mundus Vini (2014)
literature
- Elmar Hochholzer: From winegrowers' association to wine cellar . In: Winzerkeller Sommerach eG (ed.): 100 years of Winzerkeller Sommerach eG. 1901-2001. An anniversary publication . Münsterschwarzach 2001. pp. 10-22.
- Winfried Kraus: Sommerach. New chronicle of the romantic wine village on the Mainschleife . Sommerach 2007.
- Rüdiger Schuller: Studies on the history of the wine cooperative Sommerach am Main. Allow . Wuerzburg 1978.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Schuller, Rüdiger: Studies on the history of the wine cooperative Sommerach am Main . P. 13.
- ↑ Kraus, Winfried: Sommerach . P. 360.
- ^ Hochholzer, Elmar: From the winegrowers' association to the wine cellar . P. 11.
- ^ Hochholzer, Elmar: From the winegrowers' association to the wine cellar . P. 18.
- ^ Hochholzer, Elmar: From the winegrowers' association to the wine cellar . P. 20.
- ↑ Winzer-Sommerach: Worth knowing , accessed on February 21, 2019.
- ↑ Winzer-Sommerach: Awards , accessed on February 19, 2019.
Coordinates: 49 ° 49 ′ 47.6 ″ N , 10 ° 12 ′ 8.8 ″ E