Wine Diary
Waiting for the harvest!
We are ready...but still we have to wait for the harvest to start. The cellar is all spick and span, the presses and all equipment maintained in order to guarantee full functioning, yet the vines still are taking their time. Next week we will bring in some grapes for Verjus (“green” juice of grapes just before the point of ripeness).
It will be a late year: the Pinot Noirs on Käferberg had only begun their change of colour in mid-August. So we are about 14 days later than 2018 and 18 days later than in 2017 and 2011, about at the same time as in …here we have to leaf backwards through some pages …2004, 2001, 1991, 1987 or 1985 (which in the end proved to be an excellent vintage!) though still earlier as in i.e. 1984 (a truly weak vintage, as nowadays, it hardly might happen). These are fine prospects for wines like our Leicht = light & Trocken = dry, or for sparkling base wines. However the unusually late harvest dates will be challenging, and we will have to literally wrap up warm! The weather forecast predicts more cool and unstable days while we are hoping for at least 2 more weeks of sunshine before we finally get started!