Weingut Bründlmayer

This week, under mostly sunny and dry conditions, we harvested from the classic Riesling sites: Steinmassel and a big part of Heiligenstein have been brought in. It took us a lot of time to carefully sort into the small bins (15-25 kgs). Every bunch was inspected from all directions while being ‘cleaned’. The results were wonderful Riesling grapes that made our cellar master's eyes shine! Only when the grapes taste really fruity and spicy do we have the chance to make outstanding wine.

Now we are again waiting for the next nice days, soon to come, and we are looking forward to the harvest of the old vine grapes on Heiligenstein and those from the LYRA (lyre) trellised vines. Those should give the densest wines full of character.
Last Thursday, we had a vineyard visit from Austria’s leading sommeliers, who held their Austrian championship in Langenlois. At the same event, the Austrian candidates for the European- and World Championships were chosen. The day after the competition our sommeliers checked grapes, grape juices and wines in the vineyards.

A rainy day is used to free the vines around the grape zone from remaining leaves. Grapes hanging freely can dry more easily and are more likely to stay healthy. Aggressive summer sun may damage the fruit; mild autumnal sunlight always has a positive effect.
Our thick-skinned Grüner Veltliner has again proved its worth in most of the sites. The grapes of the best hilly “crus” are tasting spicy, sweet and fine and will be harvested from next week on.

It is getting very quiet in the surrounding vineyards. Most of the growers have already finished harvesting. More and more frequently mechanical harvesters can be seen accelerating the work. Here at Bründlmayer we are convinced that hand picking into small bins results in clearly superior quality. In 2014, 100% of our harvest has again been brought in manually.