Spring
Due to an extremely cold spring, bud burst didn’t take place until the end of April. Thereafter, shoot development and initial growth were normal and/or quite satisfactory. Ongoing cold, wet weather until the end of June delayed blossoming along the Mosel (3 July), Saar (7 July), and Ruwer (10 July). In addition, the development of individual berries within clusters was uneven. Last but not least, hail damage reduced yields on the Ruwer in June.
Summer
From July through August, a long period of very hot and dry weather partially offset delays in growth during spring. In late summer, we still expected a normal harvest even though berries remained small. Grapes in the best sites began to ripen at the end of August.
Autumn
Wet weather resumed in autumn. Particularly along the Saar and Ruwer, there was considerable rainfall. Yields declined rapidly in early October when the first berries began to burst. The warm, damp weather fostered the development of botrytis. By 10 October, the first clusters were already infested, whereby the greatest damage was along the Saar and Ruwer. These circumstances led to an additional, extensive reduction in yields.
Harvest
This year’s harvest began earlier than planned – on 14 October – and proved to be very complicated and time-consuming. Our core team of local workers was supplemented by our 45 loyal pickers from Romania. They were a tremendous help and enabled us to harvest clusters very selectively.
In our finest sites, harvesting in several stages is a matter of course. Pickers always have two buckets to simplify separating ripe, healthy grapes from those infested with botrytis as well as to sort grapes of varying degrees of ripeness.
Extremely low yields not only made this task “easier,” but also explains why the harvest only took two weeks. It was the shortest in the history of our estate.
Thanks to selective picking, we will be able to offer a relatively good quantity of Kabinett wines in coming months. Nevertheless, given the small volume of grapes available for Spätlese and Grosses Gewächs (only 3,000 liters), supplies will be limited.
In the Goldtröpfchen site, we were even able to harvest grapes ripe enough (153° Oechsle) to produce a Beerenauslese.