Wine Diary
Soft Rain and Spring Wines
The latest cool weather front brought the long-desired rainfall just after sprouting! To our great joy it kept falling mostly as a soft spray or drizzle over several days. The young shoots are still small, fragrant, and vulnerable, and they will have to perform enormously throughout the upcoming weeks. The shoots will grow more than 1 ½ metres, while the buds will have to be brought to flowering. In order to accomplish such efforts, the plant needs warmth, sunlight and enough soil moisture. A nice little rain over several days is the best that can happen at this time. Today, a lush green is not only showing on the vines, but also between the rows: Our winter seedings have thrived, and our spring seed blend will also find enough soil moisture.
Well, this means a lot of green work to come as soon as the warm and sunny weather returns and gives another boost to the plants, but the foundation for a good vintage 2021 is laid. For now, it may well continue raining for some more time! Our weather station on “Käferberg” reports just a little over 100 mm of precipitation since the beginning of the year. This is still under the long-term average.
Our first bottlings of 2020 are really performing well as charming Spring Wines! “Grüner Veltliner L & T” (stands for light and dry), a fruity and flowery “Rosé Zweigelt” as well as the brilliant “Kamptal Terrassen Riesling” have found many fans already.
Our “Erste Lagen” 2020, however, will be given plenty of time to mature in their casks. Their structure may consolidate, and their juvenile edges and puerile “expressionism” will soften. For now, they are characterised by impressive primary fruit, linear freshness and slightly yeasty, reductive spice. Käferberg, Spiegel, Lamm, as well as the “Alte Reben” from Heiligenstein will not be released until 2022!
