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Orders placed by 16.12. are guaranteed to be delivered before Christmas.

Fixed freight costs in AT (€ 11) & DE (€ 22)

Wine Diary

The Hoped-for Super Wine!

October 17, 2011

While all grapes picked so far gave reason for hope –healthy, perfect relationship between sweetness and acidity – there was not a single super wine yet.
Now, after the rains of the past days, we suddenly have a weekend of cold, with full moon, sun and night temperatures around freezing. The situation has changed. Now every berry tastes unique, and with a little routine one can already divine the future wine. It could become truly great.

In the lower vineyards, where many grapes have been harvested for the simple wines, the leaves are already starting to turn green and to fall to the ground. In the higher locations, the leaves still shine in luminous yellow and the grapes are mainly perfectly healthy, individual berries are beginning to shrivel.

This week and probably the next one are devoted to the “classics”. One of our most important vineyards is the Zöbinger Heiligenstein. The grapes on the younger wines are used for our Riesling Kamptaler Terrassen and will make a wine which does not challenge the palate too much, an ideal companion for eating and living, fresh, straight and fruit driven. In addition to the Heiligenstein, the younger vines from the Steinmassel vineyard yield the most important part of the Kamptaler Terrassen.

The grapes for the classic Heiligenstein (Riesling Erste Lage) must wait a few days longer.
Next to the Riesling from Heiligenstein and Steinmassel we have also started to pick from the younger vines in the vineyards Loiser Berg, Käferberg and Lamm. Vines older than 25 years will have to cope with the onset of autumnal temperatures a little longer.

The “grape skeletons” in the vineyards look somehow spooky. They are visible wherever harvesting machines have beaten down berries mechanically. It is just as well that these humungous machines don’t yet manage the gradient of the steeper terraces in the Kamptal. The best-quality wines are still harvested by hand.