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tone that it takes time to open up - a bit like the situation actually is“.
And Müller?
„Egon Müller is such a monument that he has to make Egon Müller wines. They seem to me to be more about style and design than being unmistakably marked by the vineyard.“
In August 2015, the winegrowers at Scharzhofberg received some shocking news: Annegret Reh-Gartner, the only woman on the hill, had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. The Müllers are friends with Reh-Gartner and her husband. They often invite him to dinner during this period, while Annegret Reh-Gartner is in hospital. It is now paying off that she didn‘t manage her company hierarchically, and that she has made sure that people t together. „Everybody knew what to do,“ says Reh-Gartner later. „I don‘t think I‘ve ever seen such beautiful grapes,“ says Müller. It‘s the end of August, and now he has time to ask himself questions. The year was so dry that he believes he could have managed without fungicides. He did not use herbicides, many of which also include the controversial plant toxin glyphosate. But he would not forgo them in principle: „I‘m not saying I won‘t use them, because sometimes they are necessary in an emergency. But I‘ve only needed them once in the last 30 years, in 2007.“ Müller wants to treat the environment with care and hand over the land in a good condition.
His son, Egon V, turns 15 this summer. He has just discovered beekeeping. „Please don‘t spray my bees,“ he says to his father. „If bees die, man will die“ is the slogan on his t-shirt, which he often wears while walking across the yard.
Should he take ecological action against fungus like Kunow, his neighbour?
Müller is sceptical. Copper, as eco-winemakers use it, is not degraded in the soil, while baking powder bundles the sun‘s rays. Müller has the impression that his neighbour‘s grapes have small burns. Kunow, in turn, believes that spraying with synthetic fungicides, as Müller uses them, „inhibits the avour and minerality“.
And: Kunow has sprayed eight times, while Müller has only sprayed three times. Müller asks, what causes more harm to the environment? „I am trying to learn and perhaps I am also trying to prove something to myself: is ecological access better, or can we manage to be more
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