German Publication on Stem Vines

I recently found some time to translate a German publication from The deutsche weinmagazin published on August 27, 2011 entitled Stem vines real progress, written by Agriculture Director Franz Pfaff.¹ A while back, Sebastian, from Mercier Vineyard, California sent us this article with a quick translation he did which still had me baffled.
What the article calls "stem vines" is what we refer to as tall-grafted vines. We will be planting our vines this coming spring (almost here!). After doing all our homework, interviewing our area viticulturalists who have established tall grafted Vitis vinifera vines in their vineyards, we decided that going that route would benefit us as well. It is an experiment, but a calculated one and this article provided us with some validation regarding our choice.
This article documents the trend toward tall-grafted vines in Germany. Although the vines can be twice as expensive as the conventional grafts at the nursery, there are advantages down the road. Some of the points made in the article which I can understand include:

• The risk of the scion rooting is eliminated because the scion is never in contact with the soil
• The rootstock, which forms the trunk has been disbudded so there is no problem with shoot growth from the trunk
• No shoot formation in the root area saves energy and benefits the growth of other vine organs
• The consequence of the disbudded trunk leads to less probability of infection by fungi
• Pruning activities are concentrated in the head region where the graft union allows for the clear determination of the scion
• There is a significant labor and time savings in the establishment of the young vineyard

We're looking forward to receiving our tall grafted vines and getting the vineyard planted. Stay tuned!
References:
1. Franc Pfaff, Stem vines real progress, The deutsche weinmagazin published on August 27, 2011.