Wine Diary
Old vineyards and young wines!
It is time again for pruning the vines! The first winter weeks have proven rather warm, much to the relief of our workers, while predicted cooler temperatures will favour our hibernating vineyards. We cut with classic manual scissors renouncing pneumatic or electric support. No one should be seduced to inflict deeper wounds than necessary by the ease of the cut.
Avoiding big injuries is only one principle of the so-called “soft pruning” method. We care to protect the wood from building “dead spaces” which could open the door to mycoses or favour diseases like the dreaded “Esca”. The well-trained eye of the grower also identifies and protects the vesicular system (main sap veins) so as not to disrupt the food supply and resilience of the plant. Our vines are trained to get old. The oldest ones have already exceeded 100 years, and we want them to live to 120 or even 150 years! Wine from old vines often shows especially balanced, profound and full of character.
Time between pruning and sprouting has to be well used for all kinds of repairs. After getting the old wood off we will have to tighten wire frames and replace old trellises or posts before new shoots make this impossible.
Meanwhile our first messengers of vintage 2022 have left their custody (our maturation cellars) and arrived at our distributors in a promising early form! Zweigelt Rosé and Grüner Veltliner L&T (a light and dry version of our autochthone white varietal) prove to be real "palate pleasers" and thus seem to announce a genuine quality of vintage 2022 in Kamptal: of this category we may expect many more fruit-driven, harmonic wines, which should offer a lot of drinking pleasure throughout the coming year!