Wine Diary
First Grapes harvested for Bründlmayer Brut
This was our first week of harvest, and it was dedicated to Zweigelt, St Laurent, and Pinot Noir grapes for Bründlmayer Brut Rosé. We also managed to get in a small but very fine lot of Chardonnay grapes. It is a smooth and peaceful start of the harvest, just as we like it.
Vineyards are in the best of health! Smaller dashes of rain have been good for the soils after this warm and dry summer, and the grapes could dry up quickly due to the steady & fresh winds. It is quite cool now, however, the forecast predicts warmer, sunny weather for the rest of this week. That means that we might soon get Zweigelt for the rosé wine – already our Zweigelt grapes show fine fruit aromas.
Clean, handpicked grapes are one basic condition for high class sparkling wine. We are harvesting selectively from the vines into 25 kg cases. Only perfect grapes are placed loosely in the baskets ensuring that no berries crush. During pressing the juice can be separated depending on the duration and pressure of pressing. We may take only the best parts of the juice (la taille) for our Bründlmayer Brut. Soon the time slot for Sparkling base wine will close as the ripeness is progressing and the grapes will get too sweet for Sekt – not to worry, from 2013 and 2014 we stocked good quantities of outstanding base wines for Sparkling!
In 2015 we once again may hope for smoother, more full bodied white and red wines, ripe and full of character.
Our next task will be the harvest of the youngest vineyards. They should be relieved of their relatively heavy burden of grapes as soon as possible, in order to let the root system profit from the autumn suns’ energy and allow the plant to accumulate some reserves.