Wonderful Wine Month of May: Our Highlights
We have three highlights to announce in May!
Highlight number 1 - Cold Sophie is over, the last day of the so-called Ice Saints. Since Thursday (May 16th) the danger of frost has officially been averted. And we can finally breathe a sigh of relief, because our delicate plants are no longer in danger. We were just extremely lucky this year, because in Saxony and Franconia, on the Moselle and in Rheinhessen there were very high losses due to severe frost: up to 90% of the buds froze to death.
The reason? February 2024 was the warmest February since temperature records began. In some places, temperatures were over 20 degrees. Since the vines don't wait comfortably until the temperatures are generally pleasant, but start growing like an explosion, driven by hormones, as soon as it gets over 20 degrees even once, the shoots were already really wide in April and the side buds on the vines also opened extremely early this year. This meant that the frost was able to cause serious damage when winter returned once again. Not in Weyher, thank God, but our knees are still shaking.
Photo: Frost-damaged vineyard in the Palatinate
Highlight number 2 - all wines from the 2023 harvest are now bottled and can be tasted! All of them? Not quite! Anyone who reads our newsletter carefully knows that the high-quality single-vineyard Rieslings, our late risers, will be slumbering in the cellar until autumn. But all other wines are ready to be enjoyed by your taste buds!
And how was the 2023 vintage?
Compared to 2022, the blossoming came late. Due to heavy rain in August (a mixed joy), we had an extremely labor-intensive harvest, because with the moisture came our arch enemies, mildew and botrytis, into the vineyard. We had to harvest with intensive manual labor and a lot of tact, and sort out many grapes in the process. Peter Graf also had to work virtuosically in the cellar to compensate for the capriciousness of the weather and to ensure the usual high quality. But the work was worth it! The 2023 wines are extremely fruity & fresh and have a great aroma. Our Schoppen Riesling (in the 1 liter bottle), the Cabernet blanc and the Riesling Kabinett in particular made eyes shine at the first tasting.
We still have a few bottles available from the 2022 vintage. In particular, our gourmet wines, such as the dry Chardonnay, the G. Punkt and the sweet Muscat, are ready for our connoisseurs. 2022 was an almost Mediterranean summer, and the wines turned out to be extremely sunny and strong. Get summer in your glass now! It is particularly exciting when you combine the different vintages and taste the differences. That is why we have put together two comparison packages for you:
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Comparison package small = 6 bottles, 3 varieties for only €47.90 instead of €53.40
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Comparison package large = 12 bottles, 6 varieties for only €95.90 instead of €106.80
once in 2022 and once in 2023.
Highlight number 3 - Our new price list is here, and the really good news is that we can keep prices stable this year, despite the ongoing inflation. We are really pleased about that. It was only possible because we were able to save costs in the background: We made some processes more efficient and purchased and pre-financed with great foresight. (More on this here: Let's talk about bottlenecks ). That goes down like wine... we raise our glasses to that with relief.
With that in mind, enjoy the wonderful wine month of May!
Your spring-happy counts
PS Seasonal tip : Wine tastings can now be booked again!
PPS On Saturday, May 25th we have a 4th highlight : the very first reading in the winery! We will present our brand new book WeinGeplauder and hope to see many of you! We look forward to seeing you.
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