Winemaking Cooperative - Germany

Germany

In Germany, a winemaking cooperative is often called Winzergenossenschaft, but can also be called Winzerverein, Winzervereinigung, Weingärtnergenossenschaft or Weinbauerverband. The earliest German winemaking cooperatives date back to the time before the later association laws were established. A union of winemakers in Neckarsulm in Württemberg pressed grapes and sold the resulting must, and to some extent also wine, cooperatively as early as 1834. Prussia passed an association law (Genossenschaftsgesetz) in 1867, which became law in the entire North German Confederation in 1868. One of the first winemaking cooperatives founded on the basis of this legislation, Winzerverein Mayschoß, was established in 1868 in the Ahr region and is the oldest German winemaking cooperative still in existence. Two thirds of all German vine-growers belong to a cooperative, but because of a dominance of small vineyard holdings and part-time vine growing among these members, their production is slightly less than one-third of the German total. In 2008/2009, there were 209 cooperatives in Germany with a total of 51 000 members and 32,115 hectares (79,360 acres) vineyard surface. There has been a trend to fewer cooperatives (275 existed in 1998/1999) due to fusions.

A special form of winemaking cooperative are the Zentralkellereien, a centralised cooperative found in many German wine regions, where local cooperatives rather than individual growers deliver grapes, grape must or wine. Therefore, of the 209 cooperatives existing in Germany in 2008/2009, only 120 actually produced wine on their own premises.

Cooperatives are particularly important in Württemberg, where they account for 80% of the production (2008), Baden, where they account for 76%, and the smallest German wine regions Ahr, Hessische Bergstrasse, Saale-Unstrut and Saxony.