One for All. All for One.
Most estates in Germany are still family run — and many local winegrowing communities themselves behave like a large family.
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Most estates in Germany are still family run — and many local winegrowing communities themselves behave like a large family. Such as in our wine village, where structures established over centuries are still in place. This means not just preserving traditions, supporting clubs and maintaining our wonderful cultural landscape, but also a sense within the winegrowing community that we bear a great deal of responsibility for each other. In short: you can always count on your neighbor.
One example of this is what we call the 'Betriebshelfer,' an informal temp labor force in which I myself took part seven times while training as a winemaker. What it means is that if an independent winemaker has an accident or serious illness in the middle of the growing season and can't perform the work, others jump in to keep things moving — especially during harvest. Otherwise the entire crop could go lost, and with it a season's earnings and potentially an entire livelihood.
As a young person that was one of the most fascinating aspects of the winegrowing life for me. You climb directly into somebody else's business operation and need to succeed on what is ultimately a completely foreign playing field. In many cases there's nobody there to say how things 'normally' work. And it more or less has to be up and running overnight. That's a massive amount of responsibility to bear for a colleague's business. And yet at the same time it plays a huge role in holding together the winegrowing community. Even more so: the sense of acceptance within the community at adopting these responsibilities fascinates me and always makes me proud to be a member of that circle.
Contact
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Weingut Schenk
97236 Randersacker-Heidingsfeld Ochsenfurter Straße 21 Germany
