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by tgamma
1343 days ago
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I disagree. You can have flat, vast vineyards where a lot of the work is done using heavy machinery (grape harvesters etc.), so a lot less manual labour is necessary to produce a huge output of vine. Or, as acquaintance winemaker of mine in the region of Lavaux does it, you can have 2 or 3 hectares of very steep terroir on the side of a hill with very narrow spacing between the vines where you have no chance of using any machinery at all, except for maybe a miniature cable car on 20 cm gauge tracks to help transport the grapes down to the cellar, where they are vinified and later bottled on site. Every step from pruning, fertilizing, harvesting to vinification and bottling is manual labour. This winemaker is doing this full time for an actual living, not as a hobby, mind you, and you very much can buy this wine from her. You won't these bottles in your supermarket of course, as it is mostly sold directly to customers who visit or via mail order. I wouldn't exactly call these wines mass produced. Still these small batch Chasselas, Pinot Gris and Pinot Noirs won't break the bank, as they are going between 15 and 22 Swiss francs (1CHF = 1USD at the moment) a bottle. |
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