After two weeks passed we finally finished planting our mix of 17 varieties (“Alter Fränkischer Satz”). A few hundred years back this used to be the standard way of planting a vineyard. A mix of varieties increases the diversity and decreases the chance of a bad harvest – if two varieties perform badly there are still 15 left. Melanie and… Read more →
While our new spring crew is polishing its disgorging skills I finally do find the time to write a few lines about what happened the last weeks. First of all we bottled plenty of wine back in March. The new 2017 Fledermaus is in brilliant shape and currently getting packed on pallets so you can enjoy it as soon as… Read more →
The end of February comes with the sun rising considerably earlier each day. A dark and extraordinarily wet winter is coming to an end with a grand final: we’re expecting temperatures below -10°C (14°F) for a couple of nights next week. Generally this is not a problem. But for this kind of mini bulldozer I wanted to move some soil… Read more →
Happy new year everybody! We’re slowly starting over again with all doors closed but us in the office with decent coffee and the remaining Christmas cookies. It’s been a peaceful couple of days with plenty of family- and play-time after an exhausting couple of weeks. Planning the upcoming year and looking back goes hand in hand these days. The labels… Read more →
Everything has calmed down. The Silvaner barrels are slowly going through malo, here and there there is something to repair but it’s only the remaining conventional business keeping us (or better: Melanie) busy. And tasting and dinners. Of course. Tastings and dinners there are. We recently co-hosted winemaker’s dinners in Würzburg’s MS Zufriedenheit and Bielefeld’s Heinrich sein Enkel – it’s an… Read more →
It’s been our 5th harvest since we got started and it was by far the trickiest one. Well, 2014 was a bit of a disaster but this year we had even more rot to deal with plus a LOT more wine compared to 2014. As I wrote 2 weeks ago pretty much everything we picked within the first weeks was… Read more →
It’s the first days after three weeks of harvesting every day allowing me to have a cup of coffee at my desk. Only five plots to go, we’ll finish picking grapes next week. It’s been a hell of a ride. After cleaning tanks, floors and everything else for about a week as quick as we could we started picking Sunday… Read more →
When I visited all vineyards one last time before our summer trip to the U.S. and Canada I tasted the first Bacchus berry tasting like Bacchus. That was yesterday. Harvest is getting closer and it looks like it’s going to kick in a bit sooner than usual. It’s hard to imagine a better growing weather than we had the last… Read more →
Four weeks ago the new shoots just had the lengths of a handspan. Now the wireframes are filled to the top with strong green and berries have almost reached the size of peas. Watching that quick growth is breathtaking year after year. The main event since the last post has been bloom. And due to all the sunshine I’d say… Read more →
Serious spring arrived mid May. Finally. After a super warm start in March which led to an early bud break we’ve been scared of frost for a way too long time. In the end it was three nights of burning fires in three vineyards and luckily there are only two vineyards which will likely have a significantly lower yield (Regent and one Müller-Thurgau).… Read more →
