Risch, 16.01.2025

The “new star in the red wine sky” is growing in the canton

There is a new red wine variety in the canton of Zug, and is being cultivated by the Holzgang winery in Risch, among others. The first vintage of Divico has just been bottled there. But there will not be a 2024 vintage.

Several thousand bottles are neatly packed in the warehouse at the Holzgang winery in Risch. From December, there’s not only white wine of the Solaris variety, but also a red wine. Karin and Daniel Holzgang planted the vines of the Divico variety in 2020, and the first grapes were harvested in the fall of 2023. After a year of storage, the first vintage has now been bottled.

Karin and Daniel Holzgang have been growing wine on their farm since 2016. They started with Solaris, of which they now have 4,000 vines. “Customers have always asked us why we don't offer red wine,” says Karin Holzgang. So they started looking for one. 'It was clear that only fungus-resistant varieties, known as Piwi, would be suitable for their organic farm', says Daniel Holzgang. Thanks to their resistance, they hardly need any chemical plant protection. “The available selection of red piwi varieties is still limited, however. It therefore quickly became clear to us that it would be Divico.”

Agroscope only certified this new variety for cultivation in Switzerland in 2013. Divico is similar to Gamaret, from which it also descends. ‘Divico is currently regarded as the star of the red Piwi varieties. It's not too heavy and has fine fruity flavours,’ enthuses Daniel Holzgang. The new vine has also won over other Zug winegrowers. Divico is also available from the Niederwil-Cham vineyard, for example. It will soon also be available from Weinbau Hotz in Baar and Weinbau zum Hofmeister in Hünenberg.

There will not be a 2024 red wine vintage
There are now 1,500 Divico vines in Risch, which are currently being pruned for the winter. During a normal harvest, one vine yields around one bottle of wine. But this didn't apply last year, which was wet and cool. The 2024 red wine vintage at the Holzgang winery failed completely - no good red wine could be made from the grapes. ‘We were advised by the people at the wine press (Kelterei) to make a rosé from the grapes,’ says Karin Holzgang, who is in her second year of training to become a federal winegrower. There will only be around 400 bottles from the first crop. The Solaris yield was also lower than normal last year, at around 2,000 bottles. ‘You have to live with that, because wine is a natural product,’ says Karin Holzgang.

 

Karin and Daniel Holzgang pruning the vines  Karin (2nd from right) and Daniel (3rd from right) Holzgang with their loyal helpers André Nick (far left), Doris Nick and Alois Reding (far right)    
Karin and Daniel Holzgang dream of being able to make a living from winegrowing    
Photos: Matthias Jurt
Vineyard commissioner Beat Felder        Photo: Eveline Beerkircher


The 5,500 vines in Risch will soon be joined by another 2,000. 'These will probably also be Divico vines', says Daniel Holzgang. ‘Red wine grapes have the advantage that they can not only used to make red wine, but also white or rosé wine. That gives us flexibility.’ With almost 7,500 vines, the Holzgang's dream of making a living from viticulture is getting a little closer. Daniel is currently still working 60% as a house technician at the Lorzensaal in Cham, while Karin occasionally filled in as a nursery school teacher before starting her training as a winemaker. ‘When the three children are out of the house, it might be enough,’ she says with a smile. ‘We won't get rich from winegrowing, and we couldn't do it without our fantastic volunteers. But it's the most fulfilling job you can imagine.’

The Zug winegrowers are pioneers
With its Piwi vines, the Holzgang winery is following the Zug trend. Around 85% of the cultivated area in the canton is now planted with resistant grape varieties. A Swiss record: the figure in Central Switzerland as a whole is around 40%, and only 3% in Switzerland as a whole.

The canton of Zug is a pioneer when it comes to viticulture,’ says Central Switzerland's viticulture commissioner Beat Felder. This is partly due to the fact that the cultivation of wine has really taken off in recent times. ‘For a long time, it was mainly enthusiasts and dedicated hobby winegrowers who cultivated vines,’ he adds. ‘Then professionalisation began and new businesses emerged. And naturally, they also favoured modern varieties.’

Despite the limited soil resources, Beat Felder believes that Zug wine still has a lot of potential. ‘Wine creates identity, a sense of home. And the canton of Zug, with its good purchasing power, is predestined for local specialities.’ Zug also has good conditions thanks to good soils, the lake locations and the Foehn wind. ‘Where cherries can grow, the conditions are also good for wine,’ says
Beat Felder. And Zug is still a long way from overproduction. ‘40 bottles of wine are consumed per person per year In Switzerland, but only around 1.5 bottles per inhabitant are produced in the whole of Central Switzerland - it's only half a bottle per person in Canton Zug, despite the marked increase in recent years.’

90,000 square metres of wine
A good 18,000 square metres of vines were under cultivation in the canton of Zug in 2015,. Ten years later, this area has more than quadrupled, to almost 90,000 square metres. There have also been some changes in the preferred varieties. Three white wines were at the top of the list in 2015,: Riesling-Silvaner (5,683 square metres) ahead of the two Piwi varieties Solaris (3,200) and Marechal Foch (2,400). All three of the most frequently cultivated wines in 2025 are now ‘Piwis’, however. The leader is Solaris (22,022 square metres) followed by Divico (red, 11,428 square metres) and Muscaris (white, 9,379 square metres).