One recurring theme during my recent visit to Germany was vineyard labour. Just who nowadays is prepared to work those precipitous slopes, bending, sometimes virtually on dangerous scree, over each individual vine with one foot higher than the other or on narrow terraces, typically overlooking a river far below?
In the old days of course there seemed to be enough elderly local women and occasionally men prepared to work the vineyards but nowadays younger Germans expect to drive to well-paid jobs in the towns rather than drag a hoe up and down hill in all weathers. Even Germany’s...