The harvest at Kollwentz comes to a close with two Trockenbeerenauslesen – and we take a look back at 2014…

11 Nov 2014 – General

At the end of October we brought the harvest to its conclusion with two Trockenbeerenauslesen: a Chardonnay and a Scheurebe. And in the meantime we can offer some initial comments about the 2014 vintage.

The foundation for outstanding wines is more and more clearly – by means of conscientious canopy management and cultivation of the soil – laid in the vineyards. Because of the great amount of rain this year, the foliage canopies had to be be sculpted into a trim and well-ventilated form. Again and again we removed single leaves and individual shoots, in order to bring the sun and wind to the leaves – and above all to the clusters. This year we let our greencover grow, in the vine-rows as well as in the lanes between them, so it could act to regulate the growth of the grapevines.

Up till the 25th of August, the development of the grapes was perfect. But this was followed by a series of days with fog and heavy dewfall, without the wind that normally blows so dependably in Burgenland. On top of this, right before and during the start of the harvest, we had huge downpours, and the berries of early-ripening vines like Zweigelt, Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Noir began to develop rot, to a point where where the necessary selection in the vineyards cost a great deal of time and significantly reduced the quantity of the harvest.

As the harvest progressed, the weather got steadily better, and so after a stringent selection process we could bring the Chardonnays and the Blaufränkisch as well as the Cabernet Sauvignon, little by little, into the cellar. And in the end, all these trials of the difficult vintage 2014 brought with them the ideal conditions for harvesting noble sweet wines – so we have three Trockenbeerenauslesen and one Beerenauslese to show for one week of the most rigorous berry-by-berry selection.

This allowed the current vintage, so problematic as it was in terms of external conditions, to ultimately shine forth in a much brighter light than we had dared to imagine at the beginning of September!