Once a year I pull samples of all my whites, fill a glass with each and let the wine oxidize while taking a picture from time to time, sniffing and sipping. This year Basil (Wines Under the Bonnet / Toasted) was around visiting and helped me (thanks mate!). The glasses almost didn’t fit in the photo box, I have to find a better… Read more →
Last year it felt a bit embarrassing visiting some of the fairs as we basically didn’t have any wine to sell. It’s not a lot we have left this year either but it’s a least some! We’ll sprinkle in barrel samples here and there though to give you an idea what’s coming up. We got the feedback that you did… Read more →
Pretty much exactly four weeks after we kicked off harvest we’ve finished the phase of picking grapes. While a couple of musts are still fermenting the majority of the wines has arrived in the barrels and finished fermentation. Only one batch with a bit of VA, the rest is excitingly clean. The key challenge of this year’s harvest were the acid… Read more →
It’s a wonderful thing to work with animals in agriculture. For viniculture one of the most interesting species are sheep. They can be used to feed down the greening in the vineyard or to get the bottom leaves of the vines removed. We have a few vineyards with tricky embankments where I have to spend a lot of time with… Read more →
After three weeks off the harvest preparations are under way now. And we have great support this year. Besides Antoine who’s been working with us since April we now have Stephanie and Nick joining the crew – welcome guys! The first thing to do obviously was an extensive visit of all vineyards. Can you guess which variety I’m explaining on this pic? The… Read more →
July is the last heavy-work month before harvest with a major focus on leaf management. Although it could have been worse the weather was not ideal the last weeks. This year we’re getting all the rain we missed last season. Key problem still: Peronospora. Specifically the Müller-Thurgau has been hit hard. The early infections will reduce the yield quite a bit.… Read more →
In June time flies by. This year in particular. Due to the massive amounts of rain we had the vines grew extraordinarily fast and strong. Pretty much exactly the opposite of what we saw last year. We struggled to keep up with all the work sometimes but in the end we’ve managed it very well I think. All the shoots… Read more →
Welcome back to the monthly vineyard updates! In the last four weeks all vines have exploded. With all the frost horror stories we’ve heard from friends we have to say we were really lucky in the end. Six nights of fire did cost quite a bit of money but decreased the overall damage to a rather low percentage. Only one Müller-Thurgau… Read more →
Nope, this is not a story about Cat Steven’s famous song. It is a story about wine. When Michael and I decided to come back from London in order to join Michael’s parents winery it was all clear: We wanted to do it our own way. At this time it wasn’t so clear how this way would exactly look like.… Read more →
Spring had started so nicely as the interns and I spent the first weeks together in the vineyards. The first workdays in a tee, the first barbecue,… It all ended last Friday. Within a day the temperature went down to the freeze point. Being in the middle of bud break it’s a dangerous time for frost. There is a specific spot at… Read more →
