Wine Diary
Before Sprouting
Still in the wool
Last week, frost began threatening the flowering fruit trees not only in the Danube area. As far as our vineyards are concerned, we can give the all clear for now. They have weathered this very early “late-frost” with temperatures down to minus 3.5 C° very well. Nature has taken care: with their nutrient solution the “bleeding” vines also transport relatively high amounts of sugar. This helped to prevent the flowing juice from freezing during these quite icy nights. At the same time, sprouting in Kamptal is just at its beginning. Most of the bud scales are hardly open and the young sprouts still stick in their furry cocoons, which are keeping them warm like our old wool socks. Over the weekend, we had an intermezzo of warmer weather, but now it’s getting really cold again. “Suspense continues!”
Bee Pastures
Green covers, we seeded in Autumn, have developed very well between the vines. Now we also see our seed blend of meadow flowers blossoming in the fallows and “turn around spaces” close to our vineyards. What nice bee pastures they give! These recent sunny days, our bees have been eagerly accepting the offer: thus, while the sky over Langenlois was calmer than it has been for decades, near the ground we experienced heavy air traffic! However, it will still take time until we will be able to restock our “Weingarten Honig” (vineyard honey) supplies.