Wine Diary
Before spring I
February in the Kamptal was also cooler than the previous year, although it was still significantly warmer than the 30-year average. It remained dry. The clouds that moved through in the last few weeks brought hardly any rainfall.
We have now finished pruning all but a few young vines. We have also carried out trials with pruning variants to delay budbreak in some of the more exposed sites. With ‘double pruning’, the shoots are initially only pruned to around seven to eight eyes. Frost Kopf (‘Frost head’) is the name given to a pruning method that prescribes a stretcher, which is also tied, while many more canes are left uncut at the head of the vine for the time being. The aim is always to achieve a delay in development in order to survive the phase until after the Eisheiligen (Ice Saints around Mid-May). In the event of a frost, we hope to save as many buds (eyes) as possible that may still be protected in the ‘wool’. Of course, the workload is high. We have to visit the vines twice to prune.
We use the time remaining until spring to carry out important repair work: Many wire frames have to be tensioned and anchored again. Here and there, new posts are hammered in. The dry-stone walls of the terraces are checked and, where necessary, repaired. Of course, a lot of time is still devoted to the soil. The rest of our organic farm fertiliser, some of which has matured from last year, is now being spread.
