Wine Diary
"Hot Summer Days!“
"Hot“ days to come for our vineyard and cellar team!
Not only have temperatures climbed up to over 30° C, all vines grew rapidly towards the light and many hung over the trellises, shading their grapes and preventing them from quickly drying up in the morning or after a rainfall. Moreover, their excessive growth could take away too much energy otherwise available to the grapes. So most of the time those top shoots will be cut off. However, in some special vineyards like on Heiligenstein or Käferberg we will try again not to just cut off the tendrils, but to wrap them around the highest wire of their trellis. Thus, some of the energy already invested in the plant is not lost. The canopy stays open, and part of the saved energy is directed to the fruit settings. The aim is not to maximise or minimise but to optimise the energy flow. This relates also to the issue of “grape parting”: Here, depending on size and density of the clusters one third to one half of the bunch is cut off. Timing is crucial: if it happens too early, the plant might eventually compensate with bigger berries, too late and the slightest damage to the skin could cause bleeding of juice that might lead to all kinds of diseases. At best we will later obtain loose and airy bunches of clean, ripe and good tasting fruit, an absolute precondition for great wines.
In the cellar we are about to bottle the first “Erste Lagen” wines of vintage 2022: "Ried Langenloiser Steinmassl," "Ried Langenloiser Loiserberg" and "Ried Zöbinger Heiligenstein.“ And our “Ortswein” Langenloiser Alte Reben Grüner Veltliner is to be bottled in order to get a minimum of maturing before hopefully pleasing our customers.
At the same time we have started preparing for harvest: all technical equipment will undergo a routine review.
Harvest 2023 will not start before September. This will give us sufficient time to somehow coordinate all necessary work in the vineyards and the cellar. And then every one in our team should enjoy his/her most deserved holidays before we will start off harvest with fresh forces!