Terraced Vineyards: History and Function (Douro, Priorat, Mosel, Cinque Terre)

Terracing reshapes a steep hillside into steps so vines can be planted and worked on it. The OIV's 2024 resolution on mountain and steep-slope viticulture names terraces and stone terraces among the specific cultural practices this viticulture requires, alongside adapted equipment such as narrow-gauge tractors and caterpillar traction. Construction differs by place. In the Douro, IVDP says the traditional socalcos were cut into the slopes from the bottom up, with walls built from the stones taken out of the ground and wall height depending on the slope of the plot. In Priorat, the Consell Regulador says many vineyards are worked as costers, the Catalan word for steep slope, and that some are so steep that terraces have been built. On the Bremmer Calmont in the Mosel, Wines of Germany describes walls of slate rock built horizontally across the slope that stop the soft clay-slate soil from sliding down.

• IVDP's 2013 good-practice manual splits Douro slope systems into two groups: traditional, unmechanised ones (pre-phylloxera calços, plus geias and terraces with dry-stone retaining walls built from the phylloxera crisis until about the 1970s) and mechanised ones (earth-banked patamares and vinha ao alto) introduced from then on
• The same manual illustrates pre-phylloxera Douro terraces with drains in the walls, known locally as pilheiros
• Vinha ao alto, planted along the slope's line of maximum gradient, is described by IVDP as a more recent alternative to patamares, at about 4,500 to 5,000 plants per hectare, and can be mechanised with winches or, up to slopes of around 40%, with tracked tractors
• In Winningen on the lower Mosel, Wines of Germany notes that a dry-stone wall is built without mortar or concrete, a craft it says very few craftsmen still master

IVDP says traces in several places attest to vine growing in the Douro during the Roman occupation, and that in 1756 a royal decree of the Marquis of Pombal created the Companhia Geral da Agricultura das Vinhas do Alto Douro, the oldest wine demarcation and regulation for a controlled designation of origin. Before phylloxera, which IVDP says first appeared in the region in 1862, Douro plantings sat on small irregular terraces with 1 to 2 rows of vines; these were later abandoned and are now called mortórios, and after phylloxera growers built new, wider and more sloping terraces, with or without retaining walls, at higher planting densities. In December 2001, according to IVDP, part of the Douro region was classified by UNESCO as World Heritage as a living, evolving and humanised landscape. In Priorat, the Consell Regulador says Carthusian monks brought wine-growing knowledge and techniques from Provence in the 12th century and were established at Scala Dei in 1194. On the Mosel, Wines of Germany says the Romans brought viticulture on a grand scale, and it cites the poem De navigo suo, written around 588 by Venantius Fortunatus, as the oldest known record of vines on the Calmont. Andrew Jefford, writing in Decanter in 2015, says the Cinque Terre terraces were made between 900 and 1,000 years ago.

• Douro: IVDP's manual says pre-phylloxera calços used relatively low stone walls with a rounded profile following the natural contour of the ground, each terrace holding one row of vines, sometimes two
• Douro: after phylloxera, the manual says vines went mainly onto wider terraces, set at some incline relative to the slope and separated by retaining walls that were generally tall
• Priorat: the Consell Regulador says phylloxera was a disaster for the region, as Catalonia's textile boom drew the workforce to the city and vines were not replanted except on a small scale; a new cycle of prosperity began at the end of the 1980s
• Mosel: in Winningen, Wines of Germany says the dry-stone walls were built as early as the Middle Ages, with parts most probably dating to the 13th to 15th centuries

The OIV's 2024 resolution says mountains are susceptible to accelerated soil erosion and landslides, and that the presence of viticulture in the mountains is essential to reduce erosion, landslides and the effects of flooding in flat areas. It adds that improved insolation in spring and autumn, from slopes inclined toward the sun, might be a key requirement for ripening grapes in some higher-altitude wine zones. Wines of Germany makes a similar point for German vineyards: slopes facing south or south-west in protected valleys get much more intense sunshine than the plain and a longer sunshine duration overall. On the Mosel, it says the steep slate slopes store the sun's heat during the day and release it at night, and that on the Calmont the steep slope gives an ideal angle of sun radiation for growing Riesling. In Priorat, the Consell Regulador says vines tend to suffer in its soil and climate, with yields below 1 kg per plant on average.

• Water: the OIV recommends research into surface and sub-surface water flows to establish adequate drainage on the slope, minimising landslide risk while conserving water for vineyards and the surrounding ecosystem
• Erosion: IVDP's manual notes that in post-phylloxera Douro plots laid out close to the natural slope, lower retaining walls served both to reduce erosion and to store stones removed during deep ploughing
• Runoff: the same manual warns that uncontrolled surface runoff can gully the earth banks of patamares and vinha ao alto plots, and that erosion repairs are often very costly
• Roots: on the Mosel, the vines' roots penetrate deep into the ground to seek water and minerals, per Wines of Germany

The sources tie terraced sites to wine style region by region rather than as a general rule. In Priorat, the Consell Regulador links yields below 1 kg per plant on average to wines it says have "a very unique personality". On the Mosel, Wines of Germany says the heat-storing slate slopes and deep-rooting vines let growers produce fine, fruity wines with enormous depth of flavour and relatively low alcohol. In the Douro, IVDP's 2013 manual says per-vine yields on traditional walled terraces are low, and that the legal maximum of 7.5 tonnes per hectare for DO wines is rarely reached in these systems. In Cinque Terre, Decanter's 2016 travel guide describes the dry Cinque Terre DOC (minimum 40% Bosco) as offering "herbal freshness and a pleasant sapidity", and Jefford (Decanter, 2015) called the cooperative's wines "delicate, poised, refreshing and seemingly saline".

• Priorat: Carinyena (Carignan) and Garnatxa (Grenache) are the most important native varieties, per the Consell Regulador
• Mosel: Wines of Germany's Mosel page (accessed 2026) lists 5,156 hectares of Riesling
• Douro: IVDP's manual says traditional walled terraces carry many grape varieties planted at random through the vineyard, while patamares carry a much smaller selection in separate blocks
• Cinque Terre: Sciacchetrà DOC (minimum 85% Bosco) is an amber passito from grapes dried on racks, which Decanter (2016) describes as showing honey, citrus and butterscotch

Douro: IVDP's 2006 overview puts the demarcated region at 250,000 hectares, with vines covering only 40,000 hectares in the valleys of the Douro and its tributaries, and gives planting densities from 3,000 vines per hectare on patamares to more than 6,000 in traditional vineyards. Priorat: the Consell Regulador (page updated 2023) gives the DOQ an area of 17,629 hectares, of which 2,196.8 are planted with vines and cultivated by 511 growers, with vines from 100 metres above sea level in Bellmunt del Priorat and el Molar up to 750 metres in La Morera de Montsant and Porrera. Mosel: Wines of Germany (2025 figures) counts around 5,000 winegrowers on 8,287 hectares across 125 wine towns, with clayish slate and greywacke in the lower Mosel and Devonian slate in the steep sites of the middle Mosel. Cinque Terre: Decanter's 2016 guide lists Bosco, Albarola and Vermentino among the main white grapes, and Jefford (2015) reported 80 hectares of vineyard shared by around 120 growers, 100 of whom delivered to the cooperative.

• Douro: IVDP's 2013 manual says traditional walled systems still represent about 50% of the total vineyard area, and their conversion is governed by the PIOT land-use rules for the UNESCO-listed Alto Douro Vinhateiro, since extended to the whole demarcated region
• Priorat: the DOQ was admitted at the beginning of 2013 to CERVIM, an international institute for mountain viticulture formed in 1987 under the leadership of the OIV, per the Consell Regulador
• Mosel: the Uhlen in Winningen, about 19 ha with 14.6 ha of vineyard, is Germany's largest contiguous terraced site, per Wines of Germany
• Cinque Terre: Decanter (2016) places the three crus, Costa de Posa, Costa de Campu and Costa de Sèra, at Riomaggiore, at the steeper eastern end of the Cinque Terre

The OIV's 2024 resolution says mountain and steep-slope viticulture faces threats on two fronts, cost and climate. On cost, it says this viticulture has always been more burdensome than on flat terrain, a disadvantage that increased sharply with the growing mechanisation of flat vineyards. On climate, it warns that in some regions climate change may turn the former climatic advantage of steep slopes into a disadvantage: in warmer regions, intensified solar radiation often leads to problematic conditions on steep slopes, reduced water retention and high evapotranspiration often induce water stress and lower yields, changing rainfall patterns and extreme rainfall intensify erosion and can lead to landslides, and sun-exposed slopes may start growth earlier and face a high risk of late-frost losses. Each region shows the cost side. IVDP says mechanisation is impossible on post-phylloxera Douro terraces and on vines planted on the natural slope, and that the resulting high labour costs have led to the gradual abandonment of this type of vineyard. On the Calmont, Wines of Germany says only 13 of the 22 hectares of vineyard space are still planted, because the work on the steep slopes remains strenuous. In Cinque Terre, Jefford (Decanter, 2015) quotes the cooperative's director, Matteo Bonanini, blaming the road for the abandonment of the vineyards, since tourism offered a much easier living than working the terraces.

• Mosel: on the steep inclines nearly all grapes are picked by hand, each vine is tied to its own eight-foot wooden stake, and slate soil washed down by winter rains has to be carried back up, per Wines of Germany
• Calmont: a monorack train has eased some of the work since the 1990s, but it still takes up to 1,800 hours of manual work per hectare, per Wines of Germany (accessed 2026)
• Douro: IVDP's manual says labour shortages and rising farm wages drove the move to mechanisable terracing from the 1970s, through the pioneering work of the Brigada de Mecanização e Reconversão do Douro
• Cinque Terre: Decanter (2016) reports that everything is still done by hand, though some wineries benefit from monorails provided by the cooperative

Primary sources: https://www.oiv.int/node/3805/download/pdf, https://www.ivdp.pt/pt/vinha/cultura-da-vinha/, https://www.ivdp.pt/pt/docs/douro_pt.pdf, https://www.ivdp.pt/pt/docs/SUVIDUR/MBP_(vs_integral).pdf, https://www.doqpriorat.org/en/varietals/, https://www.doqpriorat.org/en/territory/, https://www.doqpriorat.org/en/doq-priorat/, https://doqpriorat.org/en/contingut/history, https://www.winesofgermany.com/our-regions/growing-area/72/mosel, https://www.winesofgermany.com/our-regions/highlight-of-wine-culture/159/the-bremmer-calmont-vineyard, https://www.winesofgermany.com/our-regions/highlight-of-wine-culture/403/winninger-vineyard-terraces, https://www.winesofgermany.com/our-wine/viticulture/viticulture/178/soil-sites. Secondary sources: https://www.decanter.com/wine-travel/italy/decanter-travel-guide-cinque-terre-italy-300271/, https://www.decanter.com/wine-news/opinion/jefford-on-monday/jefford-on-monday-angela-s-lemon-1270/. Last verified 2026-09-28