Autumn is just around the corner
Dear friends of good wine,
the final preparations for the 2022 harvest are underway:
The holes in the rubber boots are plugged,
the grape press and the wine cellar are cleaned,
the scissors sharpened
fetched the grape wagons from the garage,
AND the harvest workers are hired.
If you would like to work for a few days in the most beautiful "office" in the Palatinate, register now spontaneously. Finally a job where you see results at the end of the day and know exactly what you've done. :-)
Otherwise, this year is extreme: For 9 weeks there has not been a drop of precipitation , not even dew. What to do?
In fact, we're against irrigating a vineyard because we think a vine needs to be self-sufficient. As a rule, he can do that too, because he has very deep-seated roots. But maybe we need to rethink now. There are a variety of irrigation methods, but few that are statistically efficient...
Just a little arithmetic example: Each vine needs about 15 liters of water per week. There are around 5,000 vines per hectare, we cultivate 16 hectares. (By the way, the Palatinate has around 23,400 hectares of vineyards!) If we only irrigated our own vines, we would need 1.2 million liters of water alone - per week! And even if we should know where we can get so much water from (rivers and lakes are at historic lows), the logistics to bring the precious liquid to the vine are still missing.
In short, watering has not been an option for us up until now . Older vines (15 years plus) have such deep roots that they can support the grapes despite a lack of rain. But the current situation is critical for younger vineyards. For this reason, we decided for the first time this year not to harvest some (young) vineyards. With a heavy heart, we cut off the unripe grapes on more than 8,500 square meters. For example, a Sauvignon Blanc vineyard that is only four years old can put all its strength into the depths because it does not have to form bunches.
But of course every coin has two sides. The climate is becoming more and more Mediterranean and the international grape varieties such as Pinot Gris, Pinot Blanc, Pinot Noir, Merlot, Chardonnay and Saint Laurent are benefiting because they are used to it. We are glad that we started changing the grape variety years ago - it is now paying off.
Of course, it was particularly exciting to see how our Cabernet Blanc developed in this heat . Because this is our most future-oriented grape variety. And it turns out that the goal of this new breed was achieved. Despite extreme temperatures and little (or no) precipitation, the Cabernet Blanc is constantly developing in terms of growth and quality.
For our traditional Riesling, on the other hand, things are not that easy at the moment. Here we already know that the experience, skill and knowledge of our cellar master Peter will be crucial for the 2022 vintage. So it remains exciting!
Enjoy the last days of summer with our summer wines , such as the wonderful G.Punkt Rosé or the popular Sauvignon Blanc . We are particularly proud of it, because it is one of the top 5% of all Sauvignon Blanc worldwide and the top 2% of the Palatinate in the Vivino app (the largest wine app in the world )! Incidentally, the ratings in this app do not come from sommeliers or professional wine tasters ... no, we are talking about "normal" consumers here - and that is what counts for us! We look forward to every review!
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