Weingut Bründlmayer

2025 began cool, then end of winter it turned mild and fairly dry. Much to our liking, the vines budded a little later than in previous years. Sufficient moisture in the spring led to vigorous budding. The cool May brought only isolated late frosts. Thankfully, this meant that flowering began two weeks later than in 2024, roughly in line with the average for the last two decades. In the Kamptal region, it lasted almost three weeks, until the end of June. July brought cool, wet weather and vigorous vegetative growth. With a lot of hard work, we managed to keep our vineyards in good shape throughout the summer. Just in time for the start of the harvest, the weather changed again. The vineyards were in excellent health, and the fruit set was pleasing and mostly balanced with the vines. Ripening in the premier cru vineyards was developing slowly but steadily. So, finally, we experienced an ‘ideal’ start to the harvest, exactly on the 1st of September.

The sparkling base wine harvest went like clockwork, and the grapes for our light regional wines like GV L&T or Zweigelt Rosé also found their way steadily into the press house. After we had laid a pleasing foundation for the 2025 vintage in the first “half” also with the early red varieties and white Burgundies, we needed a lot of stamina for the second half. The Riesling vineyards in particular required a great deal of time and care. We decided to remove unsuitable berries and damaged parts and pick only healthy grapes. A few bunches with promising signs of noble rot were still left on the vines. Selection in general was meticulous and extremely time consuming.

For the last days of the harvest, we had to mobilize all our strength once again. With a lot of patience, we brought in carefully selected Grüner Veltliner grapes from the best vineyards around Langenlois. The remaining fruit had gained a lot of character at this relatively late stage of the harvest. The weather continued to be changeable and determined the rhythm. It was an exciting finale with a lot of suspense, because the conditions altered from day to day, sometimes even from hour to hour.

Patience and perseverance were ultimately rewarded: in addition to the aforementioned Grüner Veltliner, specialties such as fruity, fresh Gelber Muskateller from Rosenhügel and spicy Cabernet Franc from Heiligenstein also found their way into the cellar. In a sunny finale on October 29th and 30th, we even picked fruit with gradations high enough for ‘Prädikatswein’: After 2013, we may again look forward to another noble rot jewel from Steinmassl and Heiligenstein grapes!

The first wines such as Zweigelt Rosé and Grüner Veltliner L&T are developing very nicely and will be available in an early bottling towards the end of the year. But there is still bubbling in the historic maturing cellar. That is why we want to wait a little longer before giving a general first assessment of the 2025 vintage. Suffice it to say that it is very much in line with the current tastes of wine lovers, as we see in the early varieties the lightness, verve, and drinkability that are currently particularly popular, and not only in Austria.