Harvest Report Rheingau 2021

The 2021 wine year was one of the toughest of this century from a practical point of view. The budding period around May was characterized by sultry, rainy weather that lasted until August. These conditions provided an optimal breeding ground for damaging fungal diseases such as peronospora. The foliage work that followed, such as stapling the shoots into the wire frame, pruning the foliage and defoliating the grape zone, became increasingly important. They ensured that the foliage wall was generally better aerated and could dry off as quickly as possible to reduce the risk of infection by fungal diseases. Through ecological plant protection measures, such as the application of herbal teas and garlic powder, we strengthened the vines and thus managed to produce healthy grapes despite grueling weather conditions.

On September 17, we officially ushered in this year's autumn with the harvest of Pinot Noir grapes for our Rosé sparkling wine. This was followed by the harvest of Riesling grapes for our base sparkling wine. After our base Rieslings had reached physiological maturity and an average value of between 82 and 88 degrees Oechsle, we finally started the main harvest of our Rheingau vineyards on October 5. After about two weeks, we finished the main harvest and started the grape harvest of our VDP. Erste Lagen and VDP. Große Lagen.

In summary, the year was quite difficult and demanded a lot of patience and nerves from us. However, it rewarded us with very good wine qualities, so that this year we could even win a fantastic Trockenbeerenauslese from our Hattenheim Nussbrunnen VDP. Große Lage could be won.