Wine Diary
Bründlmayer Vintage 2023
Charm, abundance, structure and depth already in the entry level
The year had started rather late for our vines. Sprouting was delayed by cool and dry weather, in April. By coincidence, this happily prevented damage by a cold northern air stream, which heavily affected early flowering fruits like apricots. In Kamptal we received the long sought after rain in mid-April and for 2023 this also meant the end of drought. At first, the green cover was flourishing and later, still in May, the slightly late yet vital sprouting took place.
Around the 10th of June, under changeable weather conditions, our vineyards started to blossom, about at the same time as in 2021, but still two weeks later than in the early vintage of 2018. Flowering ended some 10 days later as in 2022. One especially hot week had led to coloure (millerandage) in some sites, kind of a ‘thinning out by nature’ and much to our delight.
A very warm July and vigorous vegetative growth demanded great commitment from our vineyard team; nevertheless, we were granted a bit more time until harvest. Vines stayed very healthy and vegetation as well as the fruit set could be tamed. In the interim, August brought beneficial phases of steady, abundant rainfalls and cooler weather, before, only weeks before harvest, temperatures rose again. We enjoyed our first harvest days under a splendid late summer sun. On September 13th, after the storm with significant hail damage in some vineyards, sentiment truly had collapsed for a short moment. However, consistent action and top performances of our whole team proved crucial. The following golden ‘Indian summer’ also played much into our hands and saved the extraordinary potential of this 2023 vintage. Main harvest happened in October and was finished in the days before our national holiday (26th of October) with wonderful grapes from our top Veltliner sites.
A first glance into our cellar reveals all vivid, harmonic, fruit-driven, well-structured wines. Already our entry level Grüner Veltliners impress with even more depth than those of 2022. The general character of this new vintage is maybe more similar to the great warmer year of 2019 than to the more acidity-driven, high tension one of 2021.
In any case we are very much looking forward to showing our first lighter young wines of 2023 to our valued customers around the turn of the year!
