Weingut Bründlmayer

After a cool but also quite steady harvest period the “foehn” gives us a final boost!  Warm southerly winds accelerate ripeness and refine the aromas in the later ripening varietals. On Monday, two teams simultaneously set out, one for the Grüners from “Loiserberg” and the other for Riesling from Steinmassl. These cool, exposed and stony ‘Erste Lagen’ in the far west of the Kamptal naturally have a low yield, and so we do not have to apply all usual grape reducing measures. Musts so far give crisp, pleasantly light, fine and complex tasting impressions. Meanwhile we also have brought in the Grüner Veltliner from Vincent's “Spiegel”. On this well exposed deep grounded and chalky loess site Grüner grows really well, and we had to reduce vegetal growth and fruit substantially. The last yield restriction measure happened in early summer when we “parted” the young grapes (= cut off about a third of each fruit setting – see pictures) and now have been awarded splendid fruit!

Still there is almost no time to rest: Ripeness on Heiligenstein has recently made great progress and so now, towards the end of the week, most of our attention is focused on this precious site. The “Foehn” wind is a real “affineur” of grapes, which is exactly why we will have to speed up. It is just highly ripe, but by no means over-ripe, grapes we want from this great vineyard. Only at the very end of harvest we might be happy about some botrytised lots. They would at best be the cherry on top of a delicious cake!