From vineyard to cellar April/Mai 2015

All the wines are resting on the coarse lees, without sulfur. Naturally, only the dry wines. The subject of sulfur is increasingly interesting. Many of our customers want to know about the quantities of sulfur we add to a wine. In recent years, we’ve constantly reduced the amounts. We simply need less thanks to our method of producing dry wines. They are stable wines, yet we cannot completely dispense with sulfur. Nor do we feel that that’s necessarily a goal to strive for. Of course, opinions vary about this. Sulfur will doubtlessly be a subject of even more importance in the future but it shouldn’t become a dogma. 

As always, Mother Nature is making her presence felt. Everything is happening a bit earlier than last year. The climate changes in the course of the year are undeniable. It almost seems to me that it hasn’t stopped raining since July of last year. That’s exaggerated of course, but not entirely wrong. Until the beginning of March it was extremely wet and now and then, far too warm. All in all, the meteorologists at the Geisenheim research center report that winter was about one degree too warm and a bit too wet. We missed out on about 40 hours of sunshine. When I look at conventional calendars, forecast models, and everything else available, it looks like 2015 will be another interesting year. What’s currently apparent is that we’re experiencing a real change in the seasons. In other words, not the usual seamless transition from winter to spring, but rather the two slowly approach one another. Nights tend to be cool; days, warm. It’s interesting because it hasn’t been that way for quite some time.

 

In any case, we’ll be preparing ourselves. Particularly for the noticeable changes in precipitation patterns. We’ll be adapting our green cover, mulching less when necessary, and rolling more often to flatten and compact soil. In short: to see that excess water has somewhere to go after long-term or heavy rain.