Sun, finally!
16. November 2009 | 10:28
During the last weekend, the warm Alpine winds have blown the last autumn leaves off the vines, the grapes are now exposed, their taste magnificent and fully developed.
Here, the difference in vineyard sites shows: in the best vineyards the berries now taste expressive, at the peak of their maturity, but still healthy. In the lesser vineyards we are sorry not to have harvested earlier.
In the best vineyards the grapes show all of their late autumn lusciousness, quite different from the way they taste in late summer or early autumn.
If the weather gods are kind there will be some very happy wine producers in Langenlois – now is the time to harvest truly great wines.
The harvest is extremely labour intensive. Every bunch has to be divided into several parts: yellow and golden berries for the dry single-vineyard wines, shrunken berries for the sweeties: Auslese, Beerenauslese, and Trockenbeerenauslese.
Harvesting the Riesling Zöbinger Heiligenstein started off the week. One is glad to be able to drive on this steep hill in good weather, during the wetter days, the tractor drivers are afraid of seeing their tractor and trailer taking off on their own.
The Grüner Veltliner in our Käferberg and Lamm vineyards is still very beautiful. Once again, this varietal shows that, compared to Riesling, its thick berry skins make it the true star of this area.
