Vintage 2009

Spring began warm and bud-break in the vineyards started by the end of March. It took until June when temperatures suddenly dropped, resulting in an unusually long and cold flowering- period.

At the end of June a very humid and warm summertime confronted us with the big threat of quickly spreading mildew. Only through intensive canopy-management and big effort in the already labour intensive steep vineyards we succeeded in keeping leaves and fruit healthy.

Harvest started on October 14th, which was late, as the given ripeness of the grapes was high thanks to the warm summer. But due to the cold flowering in June single berries were unevenly ripe. So we had to wait with the picking as we surely want to avoid unripe notes in the final wines.

However this uneven ripeness could be the secret to the 2009 Riesling-wines. Providing a lot of fruit and an almost excessive richness it is only the present but yet fine and delicate acidity that keeps the wines in balance.

The regular harvest-time came to its end on November 12th, with the picking of some very fine Auslese in the Goldtröpfchen vineyard. However, in the early morning hours of December 17th, we were able to pick frozen grapes at -8° Celsius in the Ohligsberg vineyard. It’s the first time ever we have harvested an Eiswein from this site.

Theo Haart