Vintage 2014

“If you want a rainbow, you should be able to deal with rain.“
–  Dolly Parton

What a year! A lot of rain and cooler temperatures made it necessary to intensify our yield reduction methods as well as our quality measures in the vineyards. Spring was already unusually wet and cool. Nevertheless, the vines grew rather quick. The hotter climate in the Seewinkel district is a big advantage for us when comparing the rest of Austria. Blossoming went a bit hesitant and caused an irregular fruit set in some of our vineyards – as a result we had perfect loose grape bunches – yet this was the moment that revealed that this year would be a vintage with a very low yield. The sun only showed itself very irregularly and the rainfalls did not ease up. Again: thanks to the warmer climate of our region and the warmth absorbing gravelly surfaces of our soils, the grapes were able to ripen without any problems. Due to the weather conditions, we had a higher onslaught of fungus – stringent selection of the berries and a constant presence in the vineyards in order to monitor the constantly changing conditions was inevitable. We also had to be very careful with selecting the time of harvest – it was important to harvest as early as possible and not to take any risks. We wanted to have as many healthy berries as possible. Harvest was tough – grape selection takes up a lot of time and nerves – at the end of September harvest was finished. Consequently, we were not able to make any Sankt Laurent, Pinot Noir let alone sweet wines – if the quality does not permit it, we do not make any wine.