Vintage 2024

‘There is always only a single moment between too early and too late.’

– Franz Werfel

This balanced and warm vintage is fruity, deeply flavored and well-balanced. The white wines are deep in fruit and pleasantly drinkable. The red wines have a harmonious mellowness and plenty of character.

After a wonderful and wet 2023 vintage, the new year started without much snow and with a relatively warm and humid spring in Andau. A good water supply is particularly important during the dormant phase of the vines to build up reserves for the coming growth. In March, we recorded temperatures of up to 30°C and the vines were already bud-breaking in most vineyards at the end of March. Earlier than ever before, a good 2-3 weeks ahead.

Flowering at the end of May went very well and a very early harvest was now on the cards. The generally wet spring combined with the largely above-average warm weather allowed our vines to grow quickly and we could hardly keep up with the work in the vineyard. In June, summer suddenly arrived here in Burgenland with temperatures of up to 34°C and a very sunny and mostly dry summer with temperatures of up to 36°C allowed our grapes to ripen quickly.

By the end of July, we were able to unpack the pruning shears and harvest Verjus from green grapes for our new non-alcoholic product Verjus Sparkling. The grapes for the sparkling base wines were then brought in as early as mid-August and the main harvest began almost seamlessly – earlier than ever before in Andau. This year it was extremely important to not wait with the harvest, despite the still warm temperatures, to obtain fruit and freshness with moderate alcohol levels into the bottle. The fruity white wine varieties such as Muskat and Sauvignon, as well as the normally later ripening Welschriesling, were already in the cellar at the end of August, as were Pinot Noir and Sankt Laurent. Zweigelt and Grüner Veltliner were then the main target in the first weeks of September, followed by Merlot and the marvelously beautiful grapes from our now 5-year-old Cabernet Franc vines!

Around 10 September, the first rains came and with them a clear and very welcome cooling. We were still able to bring all our Merlot grapes into the cellar in time, while the small-berried and thick-skinned Cabernet Sauvignon and Blaufränkisch grapes withstood the rain without any problems and were able to refuel with fruit and flavor. Main harvest 2024 was finished by mid-September successfully.

To summarize, we can be very, very satisfied with the 2024 vintage – nature was very kind to us and kept major storm damage away from Andau. Small-berried, thick-skinned and completely healthy grapes could be harvested for the most part and provided the basis for full-bodied, flavorsome red wines and wonderfully fresh, elegant white wines.  We look forward to a balanced 2024 vintage with very good ageing potential.