Reflections on Viticulture and Wine Processing in Tyrol

Appendix

Economy.

Reflections on Viticulture and Wine Processing in Tyrol. – 1/2

To the clear-sighted eye and profound intellect of a Mr. Sieber we already owe several fine articles of interest to our fatherland in these pages; – particularly successful was his presentation on viticulture; – yet in his far-reaching views, certain local conditions seem to have remained unknown or unnoticed by him, which only a local might more closely consider and describe with greater certainty; allow me to offer explanatory hints on a few points laid down (especially as these pages are also read abroad, where not everyone already possesses knowledge of what is noticeable only to a local).

That Tyrol is a true wine country (meaning, of course, in its more southern part) is claimed not without reason in the excellent Geography of Wine, an essay in the Gotha Almanac of 1818; however, this should not be understood to mean a wine country where many selected varieties (as practiced in France as a branch of trade and industry) are cultivated or maintained according to certain principles; – even less where through artificial manipulation, or often botching, so-called bastard wines of Madeira, Malaga, Cyprus, etc. are manufactured on a factory scale; – nor where only a single excellent variety thrives particularly well; – but rather a wine country where that threefold distinction of table wine, strong wine, and dessert wine, favored by nature, climate, and soil, grows and thrives each in its location by itself, that is, with only the most ordinary care.

Our small land has indeed always paid little attention to foreign trade and traffic with its wine products; – what each year brings is usually consumed in the same year, at least 9/10 within the land itself; – true, wine from Tyrol was fetched (once more than now) from nearby Bavaria, Swabia, and Salzburg (although that type of wine called Tyrolean wine in the capitals of the aforementioned provinces seems to be more a mixture of sickeningly sweet-tasting wines). In the years when foreign monasteries and abbeys of said lands still owned vineyards in the Etschland, genuine Tyrolean wine did indeed reach the tables of the prelates (so-called special wine or final drink at the end of the meal). – As for the so-called wine merchants of the above countries, they were increasingly in contact with such wine sellers of our land who do not use all of their own produce, but buy from less wealthy winegrowers the so-called Praßlet (the mixture of grape must along with stems and skins), then usually press and ferment together without careful sorting the Praßlet of different varieties from different locations, usually racking it around Christmas, barreling it, and loading it onto the fetching carrier.

This is the most common manipulation; for there are already some thinking winegrowers who go a bit further (apart from so-called sulfurizing, coloring, etc.), where clarified grape must is drawn off into firmly bunged solid bottles, pitch-sealed, and drunk, especially in summer, as a kind of champagne, so-called Lagreiner; however, these artifices are not the subject here. Only that processing deserves attention whereby the above – pardon the expression – practical diversity of wines (table wine, strong wine, and dessert wine) is maintained without altering their natural characteristics through artifices.

It has already been said that the wine produced in Tyrol is consumed in the year of growth (calculated from one autumn to the next); – and hence comes the first and most natural reason that people generally stuck to the fermentation method customary in all of Italy, as it might yield tolerable profits for speculators selling abroad to persuade this small number of wine merchants to adopt a method other than the customary local one.

Furthermore, Tyrol was and is a border province; – Italy produces its wine requirements in abundance; – Carinthia obtains it from Styria and Hungary; – the remaining neighboring countries are foreign (non-Austrian) provinces, meaning custom and toll expenses hinder free trade; – where then should the supply of several years go?

Not always located on the main road, or fetchable via well-maintained local roads, is the wine produced here and there on mountains and in valleys; – one more obstacle to greater sales; – for the wine speculator considers this as well.

Furthermore, the lack of barrels (where a must fermenting solely in itself must remain in the barrel for at least 3 years until complete clarity and drinkability) keeps many from the method long customary in Austria and other provinces; – an economic, though not always sufficient reason, since the shortage or high price of required wood is not always securely covered and compensated by the sales proceeds achieved. (Conclusion to follow.)