Manual labor in the vineyard – does it still have a future?

Learning to work with one's hands

For me, manual labor began like this: my grandfather would take me, a 6-year-old boy, with him into the vineyard to hoe. As we worked, he would tell me stories, keep my spirits up, and gradually teach me a thing or two about the soil, the weeds, and the vines; quite incidentally, I began to develop a certain perseverance and the sense of satisfaction that comes after a job well done.

That was almost 60 years ago, and I am certain that the foundation for my love of wine was laid back then. It was typical of the time that one rarely did manual labor alone; together with others, the time flew by; nobody looked at the clock. The good old days… To be honest, however, there were also times when I was fed up, had blisters on my hands, and had absolutely no desire to continue; you just had to push through.

Years later, when I worked for Paul Fürst, who was obsessed with wine quality, I learned what makes for good manual labor. Good? – Yes, there is also bad. I learned good manual labor like this: first by having simple movements demonstrated, focusing on executing them correctly; the deeper understanding is missing at the beginning, but that comes with "doing it wrong"; during this learning phase, one is insecure, so careful guidance is helpful. Gradually, something like skill develops, and finally, the necessary speed.

Good professional practice and modern day laborers from Eastern Europe

Doing work well by hand creates an intensive relationship with the object—in our case, the grapevine; both the vintner’s work and the vine gain a special value as a result.

Bad manual labor in the vineyard, on the other hand, is simply "poorly done," flawed, and not built to last. "Haphazard," as they say in the Mosel region.

When a ragtag group of unskilled day laborers from Eastern Europe performs manual labor on large estates because there are no uncles, aunts, or willing locals left, it is, to put it mildly, suboptimal—for everyone involved.

The people do not speak German and lack professional expertise; a placement agency often keeps a good portion of their wages; ultimately, the quality of their work is irrelevant to them; they are simply putting in hours. It is not like this everywhere; there are smaller businesses with family-like ties to long-term employees, but the trend is clearly leaning toward these outsourced day laborers, carted in by bus in the morning and picked up again in the evening. The larger the winery, the less likely one is to find good, old-school professional craftsmanship.

Hand labor versus machine

But the question remains whether this attitude has a future. In times of mechanization and GPS-controlled robots, is such work performed by human hands still competitive?

Intensive use of chemicals in the soil and plants, biotechnology, and high-tech processes for the deconstruction and reconstruction of wine components—once methods of industrial wine production—are increasingly finding their way into ever-larger wineries. It is becoming harder for the wine lover to recognize this, and then there is the exciting question: how do these processes affect wine quality?

We have already detailed the damage synthetic chemicals cause in the vineyard in our blog post on organic viticulture. Biotechnology plays an increasingly important role in the cellar—i.e., during wine development—and we have also critically examined this.

An example: Pruning

As an example of the many important tasks in the vineyard, let us take a look at pruning, both by hand and by machine. Through manual pruning, we create a physical closeness to the plant from the very beginning; we feel the strength and flexibility of a shoot—whether it is brittle or firm—and can select the best-placed cane for the coming season; depending on whether a vine is vigorous—meaning it has a lot of strong wood—or is rather weak and underdeveloped, a different number of eyes, or buds, are left during pruning. With increasing experience, this individual approach to every single vine happens without any conscious thought, that is, without much deliberation or loss of time. In general, the goal is to bring the vine into the desired shape while inflicting as few pruning wounds as possible, which requires a fundamental understanding of physiological processes. The desired training form is then the result of good and gentle pruning; the vine repays this with balanced growth and a long life.

Compared to this, with exclusively mechanical pruning—the so-called minimal pruning—the entire vine is trimmed like a hedge; everything is cut back at the top and sides with passing cutter bars, and this is repeated several times as the green shoots grow. Everything is easy and saves an enormous amount of time; then, regular plant protection at short intervals to prophylactically exclude diseases, and finally, the harvest via a mechanical harvester that shakes the many grapes from the hedge. The human only sits on the machine and drives through the row of vines. Many a person knows their tractor better than their vineyard.

The labor savings here compared to intensive cane pruning by hand with careful maintenance would amount to about 90%! It is actually a completely different profession. The grape quality, however, is also a completely different quality—downward.

Conclusion

Manual labor in the vineyard still plays a major role. We perform many tasks on the vine by hand; with expertise and care, we tend and nurture the vines, thus building a strong bond with what is growing there: the healthy and rich grapes. Because we are in the vineyard every day, we know exactly where the vine stands in its development and how it reacts to weather conditions. Only in this way is organic viticulture in the Mosel possible. This proximity continues in the development of the final wine; what then comes into the bottle is not just invested effort, but also our love.

Armin Vogel, 06.03.2026