Standing in the middle of my Chardonnay vines, hose in hand, watering them for the third time this summer — the fourth day in a row — my mind wandered off to a visit I paid, some time ago, to a fellow winemaker in Ticino. You'll be forgiven if you've never heard of Tankred Götsch. But if you're an agroforestry nerd, you may know his father, Ernst Götsch — the founding father of syntropic farming, a regenerative method of growing many species tightly together. The full story o

The last few weeks have been hot and dry. Most of my days have been spent watering the young vines. They simply won't survive their first years without a little help. At the same time, the grass for the sheep is disappearing faster every day. What was lush and green a few weeks ago is now turning brown. We have forage for another couple of weeks, and after that I will need to feed them hay. This isn't entirely new, but the weather is becoming more extreme. Instead of steady r

There are a few spots in my vineyards where I always pause. I cannot tell you exactly why. Nothing looks unusual. The vines are the same variety, the soil appears the same. And yet, standing there feels different from standing twenty meters away. Better, somehow. More settled. I have mentioned this to an old farmer friend, half-expecting to receive a perplexed and polite smile. Instead, he nodded. He has his own spots. This small, unscientific observation has stayed with me —

I have fond memories of the winter sky in Iceland from my childhood. I remember walking to school in the mornings in December and January—there are only the moon, the stars, and the occasional northern lights to light the way. The very first constellation I learned to recognize was Orion constellation’s Belt—three bright stars aligned in a perfect line. It is a constellation of winter. And toward the end of the season, it begins to fade. For a short while, it is only visible

Dear wine friends, Last week a young couple visited me in the cellar. They were looking for a place to celebrate their engagement with friends and family. After I had shown them around, the young lady suddenly asked: “What is it like to have your dream job?” I was caught off guard. Not because it is an unusual question — but because I realized I didn’t have a ready-made answer. On one level, of course, this is an absolute dream job. It produces plenty of Instagrammable, pictu

Frequently, when asked what the difference between organic and biodynamic winegrowing is, I—and most colleagues—tend to answer by listing what we do differently. Usually the explanation is technical: we use slightly less copper in the vineyards, and we apply the two key biodynamic preparations—Horn Manure (500) and Horn Silica (501). For many people, that answer is sufficient, and the conversation ends there. But the truly interesting question is not what we do. It is why

Dear grapelovers, Every few years, I need a new ram for my sheep breeding program. This year, a young ram named Matti joined the herd. When I first introduced Matti to the ewes, he was shy and nervous. The sheep approached curiously, sniffed at him, and circled him, while he stood frozen, unsure of what to do. After a few minutes, he relaxed a little and began sniffing the ewes himself. Everything went smoothly until he made a fateful mistake: he sniffed Loppa, a young ewe bo

Dear grapelovers, In Switzerland, the quality of a vintage is often determined by the weather in the weeks leading up to the harvest. Checking the forecast several times a day and making numerous calls and messages to coordinate the harvest workers becomes routine. Any thought of planning more than a few days in advance quickly proves futile. It's a beautiful, but also very demanding time. Every winemaker has to find their own way of coping with the stress. For me, it works t

Dear grapelovers, When you spend all day working with plants, you might start to ponder the nature of this life form. Are they merely a silent biochemical process emerging from the earth—or is there more to them? Before Galileo—or more precisely, before the scientific revolution—most people in Europe believed the earth was flat. Anyone who claimed otherwise was ridiculed. It's a similar story with plants: since we don't find a brain in them, we consider them mindless beings.

Dear lover of grapes, Ants are landscape architects par excellence. They not only build tunnels and underground structures, but also veritable skyscrapers. The ant tower in the photo above is about 40 cm high! What's curious about their towers is that they choose a specific type of grass that is very strong. They then use this grass like reinforcing steel for their structures. It grows quite tall – and my sheep don't like to eat it. So for me, it's rather a nuisance. Since an

Dear friends of good things, Our friendly dwarf sheep, that diligently care for our vineyards, do themselves occasionally need some taking care of. A few days ago - with the competent help of some friends: Ena, Emanuel and Vlad - we pruned the hooves of the little Ouessants. The sheep don't have enough access to rocks and cliffs in the vineyards and are therefore not able to wear down their steadily growing hooves by themselves. This worked perfectly - just in time for the

Dear grapelovers, For many days now it has been try and hot - very hot - in the vines. The old vines, with their deep roots, are coping just fine, but the young vines are really struggling. Even the invasive and hardy "Berufskraut" is dying due to the dryness. I and my wines, we need your support: I am looking for a few good raindancers that can help us bring some rain to the vines. The rules of the game are as follows: At the crack of dawn you dance a wild raindance on t

Dear grapelovers, As most of you will know, I neither studied eonology, farming or vine growing. It has always been important for me to occasionally look over the shoulders of my neighbors and colleagues to learn a thing or two from them. There is this one colleague that I frequently look over the shoulder of. The picture here above represents my lesson of the week. If you look closely, you will see larvae from both Fire Salamanders and Toads. If the availability of food

Dear winelovers, You may have read the latest news on the consumption of Swiss wine in Switzerland - down 16% in just 2024 alone. Since the pandemic, people's interest in healthy nutrition, in order to live longer, has grown. In principle this is of course a good thing - there are indeed many things we could do better for our bodies, minds and the nature. But in our eagerness to consume as many "good molecules" and eliminate as many "bad molecules" as possible, we may be lo

Dear grapelovers, Spring has arrived in the vineyard. The vines are slowly waking up from their winter slumber and the first delicate buds are starting to break. One after the other our little lambs see the light of day for the first time. Their soft bleats blend in with the happy choir of the birds. So far five lambs have arrived and we are waiting for two more. Moving the herd from parcel to parcel requires a lot of patience when the lambs are so young. The herd usuall

Dear lovers of good food and wine, Join us for an unusual evening, where we honor the true heroes of flavor, the microorganisms! These tiny powerhouses are the true artists behind our wines and some of the most exciting culinary creations. In an exclusive Wine & Dine event we celebrate the old craft of fermentation - in the glass and on the plate. Our wines are spontaneously fermented by the natural yeasts and microorganisms of our vineyards, a pure expression of terroir an

Dear grapelovers, Nature has its own way of creating balance - at least most of the time. In my work I try to work with nature rather than against her and that is the reason why we are implementing agroforestry. For us, this means planting a variety of trees, bushes and other plants - as well as leaving a lot of dead wood in the vines - in order to create a diverse and resistant ecosystem in the vines. But as in any good story, there are some unexpected turns and twists: T

Dear winelovers, The struggle between herbivores and the trees goes back many million years. It is much older than humanity. The trees are always striving to create landscapes of a high forest and the herbivores want to convert everything to prairie landscape for optimal pastures. This struggle does also take place in our vineyards. Our ram Ludwig seems to have the natural instinct to try to kill all the plants that he does not see as food. It is astonishing just how quic

Dear grapelovers, The last few weeks have been filled with travel abroad to various wine fairs. It is always interesting to meet up with and exchange ideas with my colleagues abroad. It helps me to track changes and trends as well as finding inspiration for new products. Currently I have the feeling like the militant "no sulfites added" movement is loosing steam. At the same time, there seem to be more and more winemakers that apply minimalist methods in the cellar. The E

Dear grapelovers, The grapes are now ripening nicely and have already gotten their final color. The sugar content of the grapes is rising and this sweetness is a magnet for various insects and animals. Now we need to protect our grapes - and that without using toxic chemicals. We will start the harvest in a few days and then the grapes need to be perfectly clean. I suspect that this year the toughest antagonist will be the Drosophila Suzukii (D. Kirschessigfliege). Many