From vineyard to cellar February 2014

Thus far, we also haven't really had much frost. Temperatures did drop to below zero (32°F) a few nights, but that's been it. A few folks are still hoping for Eiswein. They're brave souls and perhaps their courage will pay off. Early on, we decided not to leave any grapes on the vine for Eiswein in 2013. It was foreseeable that it simply wasn't in the cards. However, we could have used a bit of frost. Both the vines and the soil benefit from a thorough frost. But once again and as always, Mother Nature doesn't respond to wishful thinking. By the way, I assume that 2014 will be another year full of special challenges...starting with the lack of winter weather thus far. But who knows? Perhaps it will turn really cold in February. That wouldn't be unusual.

 

Toward the end of the month, we'll separate the first young wines from the lees. Here, we're only talking about some of our basic wines. We don't rack our wines in the usual manner, but rather we filter the wines directly. This is a very slow and gentle process that enables us to preserve aromas as much as possible.

 

Our 2012 "Von Unserm" Pinot Noir will be bottled this month. For Pinot Noir, 2012 was a rather difficult year. Yields were fairly small and it really took quite a long time for the grapes to develop the aromas they needed. The "Von Unserm," which represents our "basic Pinot," has now spent 14 months in cask (primarily used barriques), and has now reached the stage where it's ready for bottling. Whereas the 2011 Pinot was concentrated and powerful, the 2012 edition is more typical in character: ultrafine cherry fruit, elegance, great acidity - lively! Pinot Noir without acidity is like a car without wheels...