Wine Diary
Best harvest conditions so far!
Finest Riesling from Heiligenstein harvested
Against the odds we have had hardly any rain so far. Instead, our people in the vineyards enjoyed fresh winds and cool, sunny or cloudy days. Towards the weekend “Föhn” (Mediterranean fall winds) brought warmer temperatures and sun followed by foggy, cooler weather.
We have started harvesting on Heiligenstein and have already brought in the finest and perfectly healthy grapes for the classic Kamptal DAC (see figure). Moreover, we are harvesting much of the Grüner Veltliner from our best vineyards (Erste Lagen) around
Langenlois.
Folks are busy in the cellar! While musts for classic Kamptal Terrassen (Riesling & GV) are now fermenting, our Sekt base wines has been racked and partly transferred into our aging cellar for further maturing in mostly neutral big oak casks.
St. Laurent, Pinot Noir and Zweigelt are fermenting in their wooden vats and the must has to be mixed regularly. The cap built of ascending skins congregating together, has to be submerged into the lower liquid. The caps are punched down manually several times a day. Thus we cautiously liberate many valuable elements of the skins for the later wine while keeping the fermentation healthy.
A look into the vineyards has shown that the Grüners in our first sites are already quite mature, but still completely healthy. Quickly checking the sugar content by means of a refractometer might give a clue, however, one should not jump to conclusions! To get a better impression of the situation we do the so-called “100-berries test“, randomly picking out about 100 berries from different spots in one vineyard, pressing them together and checking their combined juice. It shows ripeness at a representative cross section. Thus we learned that, for instance, in “Lamm” we have still got more time to go…