From vineyard to cellar

 

Yet these, too, will be bottled shortly, and once again, all of them with natural cork closures. The special “Erstes Gewächs bottles” with screw caps won’t be available until August.

But come they will and that’s quite a victory. Until recently, no glass manufacturer wanted to produce these bottles. But now, thanks to the Porr company, we’ve found a manufacturer willing to do so for us. A milestone!

In the meantime, it’s increasingly clear that 2011 is a very good and very “drinkable” vintage. Even in their youth, most of the wines are already really a pleasure to drink.Yet, the highly concentrated “cream of the crop” needs considerable time. We can be very satisfied with this vintage, but 2011 is certainly not on a par with the highly praised “vintages of the century” and “comet years” (1811, 1911). Maybe vintage 2012...who knows...

Fortunately, development in the vineyard this year has slowed down somewhat compared with past years. A few weeks ago, it was a different picture, but relatively cool temperatures in April decelerated growth. We finally got a good amount of rainfall in recent days, but in all, the overall amount of precipitation is once again too low. Bud burst was quite variable; in some sites, there was light frost damage – but nothing too dramatic.

Best regards,

Dirk Würtz, estate manager