Giving up a row of vines is a decision with lasting consequences. In Rheinland-Pfalz, winegrowers can apply for funding for the permanent grubbing-up of productive vineyards from 9 to 30 November 2026. The state is offering €5,000 per hectare. But the payment is not simply a contribution towards work that was due anyway: by accepting it, businesses give up planting opportunities – and must work out what happens to the land and the costs that remain.
The move comes at a time when the state’s vineyard area is already shrinking. According to the State Statistical Office, around 64,694 hectares were planted with wine grapes in 2025, down by 398 hectares, or 0.6 per cent, on the previous year. The funding thus provides a policy incentive in a market that is putting businesses under pressure to adapt. It does not, however, answer the question of which sites are economically viable in the long term.
Payment for a permanent cut
The payment can be claimed for productive sites recorded in the business’s vineyard register. Eligibility requires duly submitted grape harvest declarations for 2024 and 2025, as well as a declaration submitted on time for 2026. Exclusions include vineyards that have received restructuring support within the past five years, and steep-slope sites with a gradient of 30 per cent or more. Grubbing-up may begin once approval has been granted – expected in January or February 2027. Payment follows an inspection of the grubbed-up site.
The crucial difference from restructuring lies in the aim: restructuring prepares a vineyard for renewed or modified cultivation. The grubbing-up payment, by contrast, is intended to take productive vineyard land permanently out of winegrowing. As a rule, entitlement to a replanting authorisation is forfeited for the supported site. In addition, the business’s existing new planting authorisations are cancelled, and no new ones may be applied for for ten years. One specific option remains: an authorisation arising from the grubbing-up of another site can be used for the supported site.
Less land does not automatically mean less work
There is more to the business calculation than the payment per hectare. Grubbing-up itself costs time and money; maintenance may still be needed afterwards to prevent the land from becoming overgrown or unwanted woody vegetation from taking hold. Whether costs actually fall depends on how the parcel has been managed to date, whether it is leased and what uses are possible in future. A uniform payment cannot reflect these differences.
The site may also form part of a wider operational network: access routes, machinery, working practices and lease arrangements are often organised around several parcels. Giving up individual plots may make the remaining vineyards easier to manage – or raise new organisational questions. This is a business judgement, not an automatic consequence of the funding. Nor can the use of the land after grubbing-up be prescribed across the board; it depends, among other things, on ownership, contracts, local conditions and any further permissions that may be required.
Adjustment for the long term
The state statistics show a decline, but offer no simple explanation for every individual case of grubbing-up. In 2025, the area planted with vines in Rheinland-Pfalz fell by 0.6 per cent; several winegrowing regions also recorded declines compared with 2020. Nationwide, wine production in the 2024/25 marketing year fell by just under ten per cent compared with the previous year, according to provisional figures from the Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture (BMEL). Such figures describe the economic context, but do not indicate which parcel a particular business should give up.
The payment makes giving up vineyard land an explicitly supported option – and ties it to long-term restrictions. For businesses, the issue is therefore not simply whether €5,000 per hectare covers the cost of grubbing-up. What matters is the site’s place in the business plan and what permanently relinquishing planting authorisations means. Less vineyard area can be a strategy. Its viability depends on whether it brings costs, workload and the future of the remaining vineyards into alignment.
Original reviewed by the editors · 5 November 2026
