Thinning the shoots

Sauvignon Blanc sprouts a great number of shoots, especially if the vines are cordon-pruned with spurs.
In such cases, many dormant eyes come to life out of the old wood – the cordon.
These shoots are rather backward in their development; they scarcely bear fruit, consume vital nutrients and render the foliage canopy far denser.
The thinning-out of the shoots is executed by practised hands.

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Ried Spiegeln – Stockkultur

Today we drove stakes in our Ried Spiegeln for a system known as »Stockkultur«, where there is no trellising and each vine has its own supporting stake.
This allows for a great density of plantation (and also means a lot of work!).

Ried Spiegeln is an old vineyard site situated up above Ried Tatschler, in the middle of the woodlands on the Leitha Range.
We acquired this parcel last year and have cultivated it anew, after its lying barren for many years.

And next week we will plant the Stockkultur, with .9 x 1.0 metres between vines, which will be pruned very low with a single ‘head’ Vines require less water in this low-to-the-ground system of training, which will prove very advantageous on this dry slate soil.

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„Schern“

„Schern“

…this is the Austrian world for »hacken«, which is the German word for ‘hoeing’ – which, either way, is one of the most strenuous tasks in the vineyard.

But it is absolutely essential with young vines, in order to avoid having too much competition for water and nutrients.

On the hillside, we also make a point of creating a little depression around the vine, so that the rainwater can seep into the ground.

And speaking of rain, last week we received fifty-one litres per square metre – a blessing for nature.

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Steinzeiler 2018

The appropriate moment has arrived to make the assemblage of our Steinzeiler 2018. First we taste it, and then we get to work.
The individual casks are decanted together with a gentle pump, washed out and then refilled.
Sounds easy – and perhaps it is, too – but this requires a great deal of intuition and a lot of experience at tasting.
When all is said and done, the sum should taste better than the individual components.
Now the Steinzeiler still has about 24 months of additional maturation in the small oak casks.


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Cultivating the green fertiliser

We are cutting the grass mulch under and introducing yellow clover in the existing green lanes between the rows of vines. This increases plant diversity, aerates the greencover and provides light nitrogen mineralisation.

 

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Harbingers of Springtime

The cowslips and the pheasant’s eyes are blooming in our vineyard Ried Durr.

The blackthorns and wild cherries are gleaming vibrant white at the edge of the woods around Gloria and on the slopes.

Springtime is arriving on the Leitha Range, and we are busy binding the last of the shoots onto the wires.

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Trockenbeerenauslese

With eight pickers working, the harvest goes quickly. Especially since the winged-and-feathered pickers did such a thorough job shortly beforehand.

 

Where there was no netting, there are now no grapes. Only occasionally did the starlings leave a couple shrivelled berries behind.

 

The volume of juice from five hectares, which had previously undergone a preliminary harvest, amounts to half a barrique of Trockenbeerenauslese.

 

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