Wine Diary
Sunshine wind and rainfall!
This week we had to deal with various different weather conditions keeping the days really thrilling! We started into the week with wonderful weather on Monday, when we managed to get fine aromatic and fruity Rieslings from both old and Lyra- trellised vines of Heiligenstein. This means that we were able to finish the Heiligenstein Riesling harvest in good time.
Then followed a rainy Tuesday that gave us the opportunity to clean things up in the cellar and whip it into shape again, while the presses got a little break. Pumping over and punching down to break up the fermentation caps was on the agenda as well as racking. The characteristic bubbling out of the bungs gets more and more frequent and vigorous in our chardonnay for instance, which had started spontaneous fermentation in 300 Liter casks and is now almost finished with its alcoholic fermentation.
In the middle of the week our highly motivated harvesters set out onto the most westerly sites “Loiser Berg“ and its southwest-facing slope “Berg Vogelsang“. Under very windy but mostly sunny conditions, they picked almost salty and straightforward tasting Veltliner grapes. During this hot and dry summer period the barren schist soils on Loiser Berg gave some stress to the vines. However we achieved fully ripe and well-balanced fruit from this cool site. It seems that precise ground and green work throughout the year has been rewarded!
Today early in the morning we set out for the “Kammerner Lamm” when the air was still very fresh and clear. Grapes there had an intense taste and great ripeness showing also an impressive acid backbone – very promising! The weekend forecast is fair to middling; nevertheless we are confident that we will get tasty and healthy Käferberg Grüner Veltliner in the press in time.