This high education system was developed in Austria by the winery owner Laurenz (Lenz) Moser III (1905-1978) in the 1930s at his own winery in Rohrendorf im Kremstal(Lower Austria). After study trips to European wine-growing regions, he took over the then family winery in 1929. Today it no longer belongs to the Lenz Moser family, but operates under the name Lenz Moser AG. From the end of the 1920s, Moser undertook experiments with a wide-row system supported by wire frames, which he called high culture and which is also referred to as "Moser culture" after him. From 1936 onwards, this was used exclusively on his own farm. After a severe winter frost in 1956 (against which the system offers protection), the high culture was finally able to establish itself. It is used on 90% of Austria's vineyards as well as in many wine-growing regions worldwide. Out of gratitude, a monument was erected to Lenz Mosser in Rohrendorf in 980 by the Austrian winegrowers. The picture on the right shows Moser demonstrating pruning.
Application & Shapes
The vines were planted at relatively wide distances of 3.00 to 3.30 metres (1 vine 3 to 4 m² = about 3,000 vines/ha) and trained 1.00 to 1.30 metres high on wire frames (wide-space training). Due to the lower number of vines/hectare compared to cane culture, the canes must produce a higher yield in order to achieve the same area output compared to denser planting. Each vine must develop more shoots, which also means more leaves. To ensure sufficient exposure (sunlight), the shoots were divided (1/3 on the left, 1/3 in the middle in wire pairs, 1/3 on the right). From today's point of view, however, this is a hindrance to the use of mechanical equipment such as Traubenvollerntergrape...
