– Vintage 2019 –

Budding at the normal time, a dry spell until the end of April and a very wet May provided the early keys to the vintage. in June, midsummer temperatures beyond the 30-degree mark made for extremely rapid progress in the vegetation cycle. In contrast to the previous year, budding took place this year about two weeks later, and hot summery temperatures made for an irregular fruit-set and loosely-berried clusters on the Blaufränkisch & Chardonnay vines.

We made it through the occasionally very hot summer without suffering drought stress, thanks to light volumes of rain that fell now and again. At the beginning of September the vines achieved full maturity and we were able to harvest ripe & healthy Zweigelt & Pinot Noir with good acidity. With our Sauvignon Blanc, two more rain showers caused botrytis to develop, and we are very thankful to have such an excellent picking team, so that we were able to secure a small but fine crop by means of rigorous selection.

From mid-September on it was noticeably cooler, and we harvested the Chardonnays in our vineyards on the Leitha Range. HIgh ripeness with high acidity and perfectly healthy grapes means spicy & long-lived wines. The Blaufränkisch grapes came into the cellar after 20 September with the highest degree of maturity. Crunchy grape skins, deep red-coloured musts and sweet, spicy fruit are as much in focus here as with the Cabernet Sauvignon that we picked on 1 October.

The 2019 vintage will go down as yet another top year ending in 9 in the annals of Weingut Kollwentz!