From vineyard to cellar August / September 2015

There was a period when it cooled off somewhat and it rained a bit, but nothing really significant. The first half of the year was one of the driest. People say that worldwide, June was the warmest on record. Our vines desperately still need some water, but not a repeat of what happened last year, when it started to rain at the end of July and basically didn’t stop.

Blossoming proceeded well and despite the dry weather, most of the vineyards look good. Thus far, nearly everything has gone relatively well. The spotted wing drosophila fruit fly, the pest that kept us on our toes last year, apparently survived the winter well and is already waiting in the wings this year. In addition, there are hordes of wasps – due to the warm summer, many more than usual. As soon as the grapes begin to develop sugar they become active and attack the grapes. This could lead to considerable damage.

From now on, it’s fingers crossed.

Peace has returned to the cellar. A large portion of our vintage 2014 wines have been bottled. Some are still lying in cask, where they need to continue fermenting or are aging on the lees. We just recently bottled a wine from vintage 2012...after 32 months in cask. Admittedly, that is relatively extreme, but the result is worth it. We will continue to practive this method of winemaking, and I’m already excited to see what will come of it.

We’ve also started to bottle our barrique-aged premium red wines from vintage 2013. For us, this vintage will surely be a sort of milestone in red winemaking. You can look forward to something monumental.....