Man and woman harvesting grapes in vineyard, closeup. (ekaterinayatcenko (123RF))
110 people from the greater Stuttgart area (myself included) recently volunteered over three weeks to cut Lemberger, red Riesling, and other grape varieties alongside Gottfried Bader and his family during this year’s grape harvest season. The Bader family, a cornerstone of the Esslingen region, has been growing grapes and making wine for four generations. Gottfried’s son, Rodney, will become the fifth generation when he takes over.
Before starting the work among the vines, Gottfried provided a history of the vineyards and how Team Werk Esslingen came to fruition. Over the years, after larger hectares of vines had been sold, 72 hectares (26 terraced steep slopes) remained privately owned by individual families. They were not harvesting enough individually to make bottling wine worth it. Eventually, these 55 families joined together and formed Team Werk Esslingen, what we would think of in the States as a “co-op.” Many of the families work other jobs in the area in addition to growing grapes.
Because of the steepness of some of the areas where the grapes grow, they can only be cut by hand. It takes many hours of work to cut the grapes and then hike them out of the vineyard by volunteers with a plastic container designed to be worn on the back for harvest. The work can be physically demanding, requiring volunteers to be able to walk on uneven terrain and stand on their feet for several hours. Volunteers work along specific rows, cutting grapes with the sheers provided and filling the small buckets repeatedly until the assigned section for that day is complete. The larger the group, the quicker the work goes.
Bunch of grapes in the vineyard by sunny weather (gyuszko)
As we were working, Gottfried explained that a few years ago, they were having issues with butterflies laying eggs on the vines. The babies would hatch and then eat the leaves on the vine, damaging the grapes. In years past, they sprayed heavy insecticides to combat the issue. Not only did the insecticides kill the eggs but they also killed all the insects anywhere nearby. Eventually, they discovered a butterfly pheromone that they could place around the vineyard’s perimeter, which confuses the butterflies and keeps them from mating on the vines. Instead, they mate in the trees and woods nearby. They were thrilled with this new solution; however, it came at a hefty price tag: roughly ten times the cost per hectare than they were previously paying for insecticide!
Today, Team Werk produces 66 types of wine, which can be sampled and purchased in their tasting room in Esslingen. As we learned during the harvest, they do not produce the wine on-site. The grapes are harvested from the nearby vineyards, processed, and then taken to a facility in Ludwigsburg where the wine is produced and bottled before being brought back to Esslingen when completed. In addition to the tasting room, they also built an event space upstairs to host weddings and other gatherings.
I can’t stress enough how much I enjoyed my time volunteering among the vines. There’s something truly special about the soothing clips of the sheers and the satisfaction of filling a bucket to the brim with fresh grapes. And the reward at the end of the day? An authentic Swabian lunch paired with your choice of Rose or White Esecco, which was the perfect way to end the experience. As a thank you for your time and work, you even get to take a bottle of their delicious wine home. It’s an experience you won’t want to miss.
If manual labor, a meal among new friends and good wine all sound like fun times to you, make sure you join Germany Sippenings on Facebook, so you don’t miss out on your chance to roll up your sleeves with the Baders for the 2025 harvest season.
Erin Henderson is a professional freelance photographer and writer whose work has been featured in a variety of publications. She is also a mother of two and a Marine Corps spouse living in Stuttgart, Germany. You can find more of her work at erinhendersonmedia.com or follow her travels on Instagram @erinhendrsn.
