respekt-retreat in December 2023

This year, we held our fourth annual gathering at the beautiful Gut Sonnenhausen in Glonn near Munich.The journey there was an adventure, with thick snowflakes making it difficult or even impossible from all directions from the early morning. Some of us had to turn back, others had to literally meander towards Sonnenhausen, which was beautifully submerged in snow.

The theme of the retreat was already entirely among the motto for the coming year: "The future of viticulture." Because in view of the climate crisis, many winegrowers see themselves at the end of their wisdom. Drought, storms, heavy rain, late frosts and premature budding, new diseases and pests, increased fungal pressure and so on and so forth require new measures. But which ones? And which of these are authorised for biodynamic viticulture? Which grape varieties will still work in twenty or fifty years' time and which vineyards?

However, helplessness and despair in the face of these massive challenges do not help. On the contrary, we have decided to open ourselves up to new research, ideally to participate and actively help shape the future. We therefore invited renowned scientists to tell us about the progress made in agricultural breeding and to point out possible solutions.

These were

• Dr Ortrun Mittelsten-Scheid, Gregor Mendel Institute for Molecular Plant Biology of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, who explained to us what the Crispr/Cas gene scissors are all about. Infinitely enlightening!
• Professor Dr Reinhard Töpfer, Julius Kühn Institute (Gallweilerhof Institute for Grapevine Breeding). He told us about the challenges of Piwi breeding and how it works in general.
• Herbert Völkle, cereal breeder and board member of the Dachverband ökologische Pflanzenzüchtung in Deutschland e.V. His presentation focussed on breeding and crop development from a biodynamic perspective.
• And, as always, Georg Meißner, lecturer at Hochschule Geisenheim University, who provided a unifying framework for the whole event, as well as the boundary-pushing Martin von Mackensen from Dottenfelderhof, who, as always, inspired us with his openness towards innovations and his enthusiasm and encouraged us as a group to stay on the topic - and even more so to drive it forward.

  We will be very happy to do so! We are therefore placing the coming year entirely among the motto of our retreat, embedded in the anniversary year of 100 years of biodynamics (= 100 years of Rudolf Steiner's agricultural lecture).There will be plenty of opportunity for discussion. We are already looking forward to your visit at the

• 1st  ProWein in Düsseldorf: Masterclass with Sascha Speicher on Monday, 9 February, at 4 pm at the Meininger stand

• 2nd  VieVinum in the Vienna Hofburg: Masterclass with Romana Echensperger MW on Monday, 26 May at 9 a.m.

  See you soon,
  the respekt vintners
  
  

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