Vintage 2010 – Up To a Challenge

The year began with unusually cold temperatures and lots of snow. Lots and lots of snow. Our traditionally mild spring was not simply late, it simply didn’t arrive at all. As a result, bud burst didn’t occur in the Rheingau until 26 April, or five days later the ten-year average. Although vegetation got off to a very slow start during the cool, wet weather of May, unseasonably warm temperatures in June encouraged growth and blossoming began on 16 June, or one day earlier than the ten-year average. Unfortunately, however, temperature fluctuations thereafter resulted in an extremely long blossoming period and overall development slowed down again.

Nevertheless, several weeks of hot weather in July quickly made up for earlier delays in growth. Then there was August, which brought with it the largest amounts of precipitation in years. The botrytis fungus set in. Further development stagnated: must weights increased and acidity decreased only slightly from day to day. Things didn’t really get back on track until the sunny weeks of October, which in 2010 was truly a “golden” month.

In general, the 2010 vintage was extremely demanding on both grower and cellar master. It was only thanks to our enormous efforts in the vineyard that we were able to harvest a crop that supplied us with all the levels of ripeness that we needed, ranging from simple everyday wines to “potential candidates” for Erstes Gewächs, as well as marvelous Trockenbeerenauslesen, whose aging potential is legendary. Weingut Balthasar Ress ventured a new path in 2010. Never before had we worked so selectively in all of our vineyards – all to one end: to bring in a crop that was sufficiently healthy and in such a good state to enable us to also produce truly “great” wines. All things considered, we’re very satisfied with the quality of vintage 2010 thus far. The only bitter pill to swallow was the size of this year’s crop: our yields were only a bit more than 40 hl/ha, the smallest harvest in the wine estate’s history.

It’s also worth mentioning that quite a number of journalists seem to have relegated 2010 to vintages classified “small and poor.” This is definitely not the case. It remains to be seen whether it will join the ranks of truly “great” vintages. A year like 2010 clearly draws the line between mass and handcrafted production. The year was a challenge for all of us. Anyone can manage a simple vintage; not all are up to a challenge.