I grew up with the images from this Liechtenstein stamp series, and they still strike a chord with me today. As a child from a wine-growing village in Baden, I know what they depict: while my schoolmates ran to the swimming pool on hot days, I stood in the vineyard on the steep slope – thinning out, pruning leaves, removing high shoots (as far as I could reach), my forehead covered in salt. Even in autumn, when many celebrated the harvest as a romantic highlight and helped out on sunny days – on cold days, when gloves were a must and the wind whistled around our ears, hardly anyone was to be seen – I knew that twelve months of work went into every grape: pruning in February, tying in March, breathing space for the soil in April, taming shoots in May, light management in June, moderation in July.
It was always exhausting – and although I sometimes cursed this work over the course of the year, I wouldn’t want to be without it today. Perhaps I have become romanticised myself: my fondest memories are of the golden light after the work was done, the view from the mountain down into the valley, the feeling of having literally tilled the soil, stick by stick; then everything was fine – until the next step in the process, often less than four weeks away. You can find out a bit more about my home village Durbach in my first postcard exhibit — especially about where the good wine used to be (and still is) found.
The Liechtenstein stamp series ‘Das Jahr des Winzers’ (The Year of the Winegrower) from 2003, designed by Martha Griebler, captures this rhythm perfectly. It shows the thread running through the year:
February, the clear cut that makes space. March, tying up so that light can reach everywhere. April, the soil that wants to breathe..
May and June, when the vines grow faster than you can keep up with them – tying in, training the foliage. July, moderation.
August, thinning out: less is more. September, reading what the year has written. October, pressing – gathering becomes transformation.
November, costs, still restless, but unique. December, cold, the sweetness sharpens. January, tranquillity in bottles.
Anyone who has spent a year like this recognises a hand movement in every stamp – and in every hand movement an hour that no one sees. Twelve motifs, clearly composed, with calm colours and a focus on the gesture rather than the spectacular. It is understandable that the images show the work in their light tones. The course of the year also includes the sober – less ‘romantic’ – moments and aspects of modern agriculture, from the application of pesticides to the tractor sliding down the slope; they remain discreet on the stamps – virtually non-existent – so that the focus remains on the patience and precision of manual labour.
It is interesting that Liechtenstein, of all places, is making this patience in viticulture a topic of a stamp series: a small wine-producing country that many people are not even aware of. The Herawingert in Vaduz – just a few hectares, sloping to the south-west, blessed with the Föhn wind – is the heart of the region (stamp from 2010). Pinot Noir and Chardonnay thrive here in particular; the few plots are largely cultivated by hand. Small-scale, concentrated, exposed to the weather – just like the vineyards I knew in my home village.
Characteristics of the stamps in the series:
- Year of issue: 2003
- Size: 32.5 x 32.5 mm
- Colours: Multicolor
- Designer: Martha Griebler
- Printer: Österreichische Staatsdruckerei (Austrian State Printer)
- Format: Commemorative
- Perforation: 14¼
- Print: Gravur Printing
- Print run:
