Mayschoss-Altenahr wine cooperative

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Location of the wine cooperative in Mayschoss
Location of the wine cooperative in Altenahr

The Winzergenossenschaft Mayschoss-Altenahr eG has around 430 members who together have a total of 150 hectares of cultivation area in the Ahr valley . This corresponds to about a quarter of the cultivation area of ​​this cultivation area . The wine cooperative is located in the Ahrweiler district in Rhineland-Palatinate and belongs to the Ahr wine-growing region . The winery, administration and sales are located in Mayschoss and Altenahr .

Companies, varieties and locations

The functional principle of the Mayschoss-Altenahr wine cooperative is that it buys the grapes harvested by its cooperative members . While the winemakers do all the work in the vineyard , the cooperative takes care of the expansion of the wine in the cellar and the marketing. The average annual production of wine is around 1.2 million bottles. The storage capacities include around 250,000 liters in wooden barrels and 1.8 million liters in tanks. The cooperative has 33 full-time employees and around 100 marginal employees . The approximately 430 members of the cooperative include around 250 active winemakers who deliver grapes for pressing .

At the Mayschoss-Altenahr wine cooperative, around 80 percent are red grape varieties and 20 percent are white grape varieties. The main grape variety is Pinot Noir , followed by Riesling . Frühburgunder , Blauer Portugieser , Domina , Regent (red), and Weißburgunder , Müller-Thurgau , Kerner (white) are grown in small quantities .

The vineyards of the cooperative members are located in the entire Ahr valley. The largest locations are the Mayschosser Laacherberg (49 ha), the Mayschosser Mönchberg (43 ha), the Ahrweiler Daubhaus (34.8 ha), the Mayschosser Burgberg (14.5 ha) and the Altenahrer Eck .

history

In the 19th century there was a great need among the winegrowers on the Ahr, which had arisen as a result of the social upheaval as a result of the French Revolution . Before 1794, the vintners owned their vineyards on long leases . They paid a low hereditary interest to the owners in the form of monasteries as well as clerical and secular lords and also paid in kind with grapes. They were also able to sell wine and grapes to monasteries and aristocratic courts, which meant that further processing and sales were no longer necessary. With the secularization during the French period and the dissolution of the monasteries as well as many lordly court holdings , the winemakers lost their larger customers. During this time taxes and duties had to be paid in cash, so that the indebtedness of the winegrowers increased. There was also an above-average number of bad harvests , as in the 1810s, 1840s and 1850s. Since there was no wine law at that time, artificial wine was widespread, which turned out to be sweet according to customer taste. The more bitter natural wines from the Ahr, especially the red wine , could not compete with it. From the 1820s onwards, the wine trade put winegrowers in a difficult economic situation, as they bought the wine or the harvests at agreed prices that no longer covered costs.

founding

From 1864, the Mayschoss winegrowers had several good harvests and the lack of sales caused the wine stocks to rise. One winemaker described the situation at the time as follows:

"We had enough wine, but no bread and no money to buy it."

Realizing that they were unable to market their wine at a profit during the economic crisis at the time, 18 winegrowers founded the Mayschosser Winzerverein in 1868 . The association was converted into a cooperative in 1869 .

The wine cooperative achieved its first major business successes in 1871, after a board member had visited the customers in the most important consumer areas. As a result, larger quantities of wine were sold at good prices. With the success, the skepticism of many winemakers towards the cooperative disappeared and the number of members rose steadily. In 1881 there were 141 members. Initially, the cooperative took over sales; soon also the cellar economy through the aging of the wines in the barrel . This allowed the winemakers to concentrate on the work in the vineyard . In 1873 a winery with a vaulted cellar was built, which was expanded in 1889 to include another cellar corridor for barrel storage.

Recent history

The Mayschoss-Altenahr wine cooperative has been trading under this name since the merger with the Altenahr wine cooperative in 1982. In 2009 it merged with the Walporzheim winegrowers' cooperative founded in 1871 . In 2018 the Mayschoss-Altenahr wine cooperative celebrated its 150th anniversary. The company describes itself as the oldest wine cooperative in the world; but it is not the first, but the oldest that still exists. The Neckarsulm-Gundelsheim winegrowing cooperative, which emerged from a winegrowing association and was founded in 1855, is older , but was merged into another cooperative in 2007 and no longer exists. In 2016, the wine cooperative invested three million euros in modernizing and expanding its production facilities because the area under vines had increased. For this purpose, the operating halls above the vault of the old barrel cellar were renewed and equipped with nine meter high stainless steel tanks for 500,000 liters of wine.

President

The winegrowers' cooperative presided over:

  • 1868-1872 Nik. Jackel
  • 1872–1886 Joh. Pet. Gottsacker
  • 1886–1906 Ant. Jos. Josten
  • 1906–1923 Pet. Rochus Josten
  • 1923–1925 Heinrich Ulrich
  • 1925-1929 Hub. Bungart
  • 1929-1935 Nik. Meurer
  • 1935–1945 Lorenz Mies
  • 1945 – after 1968 Franz Asbach

Awards

In 2009 the Mayschoss-Altenahr wine cooperative was honored with a Federal Honorary Prize from the German Agricultural Society . Also in 2009 she was awarded the State Prize for Viticulture . The award was made by the then Rhineland-Palatinate minister of viticulture, Hendrik Hering . Of the six wineries mentioned in Big Johnson , the wine cooperative ranks fifth with one or two stars.

literature

Web links

Commons : Winzergenossenschaft Mayschoss-Altenahr  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b The Great Johnson , 6th Edition, 2009, ISBN 978-3-8338-1621-5 , page 255
  2. ↑ Peter Zschunke: "Everyone does what they can": When winemakers join forces. In: swp.de . September 7, 2018, accessed January 28, 2019 .
  3. ↑ Andrea Simons: Pure handwork. In: General-Anzeiger . October 4, 2017, accessed January 28, 2019 .
  4. ↑ a b c see literature: Ignaz Görtz: The foundation of the first winegrowers' cooperative in Mayschoss
  5. ↑ Vintners on the Ahr have been comrades for 150 years. In: Kölner Stadtanzeiger . September 8, 2018, accessed January 28, 2019 .
  6. ↑ Christine Schulze: The world's oldest wine cooperative is on the Ahr. In: General-Anzeiger. September 3, 2018, accessed January 28, 2019 .
  7. ↑ The oldest wine cooperative in the world. In: Website of the Mayschoss-Altenahr wine cooperative. Retrieved January 8, 2018 .
  8. ↑ Christine Schulze: Space for wine in nine meter high tanks. In: General-Anzeiger. February 11, 2016, accessed January 28, 2019 .