Vintage 2003

„I’m on fire.“
– Bruce Springsteen

A very hot and dry year lies behind us – full of record temperatures. Winter was long and cold although we did not have extreme cold temperature strikes. Even the Neusiedler lake was still frozen in March. But then the temperatures started to rise slowly – and as awaited, bud burst began end of April. The drought during springtime was really hard on us and the vines. Already until the 10th of May we had 5 days over 30°C. Blossoming finished around the 5th of June. Heat and low precipitation drove the vegetation in our vineyards. Mid of July our red grape varieties started to change colour. The record heat waves made work in the vineyards very uncomfortable. Nevertheless, we did not seem to be having irregular growth and ripening in our vineyards ensuring very healthy grape material. Harvest was already at full speed beginning of August. The late ripening grape materials like Blaufränkisch ripened extremely well this year. Weather was stable and warm resulting in a record speed harvest – all our grapes were already in our cellars in four weeks.