2024-04-23 01:07:45
The Bavarian school programs provide that in the two-year period leading to high school graduation, high school students must follow a project seminar (P-Seminar) for three semesters in which, with a teacher as tutor, they can gain study and professional career experiences according to the own personal desires and expectations. The seminar can concern, for example, the setting up of a radio, retracing the footsteps of the Romans in a specific area, collecting local legends for children, or, as happened this year in Würzburg, making a wine, and not any wine, but the “wine of maturity”, which turned out so well that it was rewarded.
It didn’t happen by chance, the city of Würzburg is located at the center of a region of great wines: excellent Silvaner, Müller-Thurgau, Riesling, Pinot Blanc, and the prized Bacchus are produced in the area around the Main. In this city there is one of the oldest vineyards in Germany, dating back to at least 779: the 85-hectare Würzburger Stein which was also celebrated by Goethe. It is not so surprising, therefore, that 15 students from the Riemenschneider high school, led by the chemistry teacher Klaus Perneker, how P-Seminar decided to make their Silvaner, starting from scratch. Or rather, starting from the 2022 harvest, when, on a very cold morning, fully equipped with panniers on your shoulders, accompanied by the winemaker Martin Schmitt of the Schmitts Kinder winery in Randeracker, climbed the steep slopes of the vineyards to hand-pick the bunches that would be the basis of their ambitious project. For the kids who will now earn their Abitur diploma, our high school diploma, that was an extremely tiring but unforgettable day. Thanks to those bunches they were able to produce their “Abitur Wein”, which they then bottled in 1500 “Bocksbeutel”, the spherical and flattened bottles that in Franconia are traditionally reserved for high quality wines. But to get to the bottling and labeling – even the graphic part was taken care of by them – the 15 guys followed the entire path that leads from the bunch to the wine.
And they even went further. They learned about the biochemical processes of wine, carried out analyzes in a wine laboratory, but also made visits to the terroir stations of the region and to the Bavarian State Institute for Viticulture and Horticulture, and participated in lectures on economic and cultural aspects of viticulture in Lower Franconia. Many projects and sub-projects that occupied 17-19 year olds especially on weekends, also forcing them to make sacrifices in their personal lives. «Thanks to the seminar, the students discovered how complex the experience, knowledge, work and tradition of viticulture are», he says Klaus Perneker adding: the kids also learned that wine is a stimulant that should be consumed in moderation to have added value. The main topic of the seminar was chemistry, not only did they work in the laboratory, but they also studied the effects of alcohol on the body, the problems it can cause in the short term and the long-term dependencies in case of abuse.” To those who ask if it is a good idea to introduce young people to alcohol, among other things in a school environment, the teacher responds by explaining that during the various phases of the seminar the students tasted grape juice several times, but wine but only in minimal quantities for research work.
However, they will finally be able to drink a glass of their Silvaner at the end of June at school on the day of the graduation party. And they will be able to recognize its mineral notes and the scents of green apples and white flowers that they talked about with their teacher. Their “maturity wine” is an excellent example of its kind: dry, light, with moderate acidity and alcohol content. Meanwhile, after this experience, some of the boys have decided that their professional future will be in a winery.
2024-04-23 01:07:45