Grand Finale

After the weather forecast hotline of the Central Meteorological Authority and Geodynamics on the Hohe Warte near Vienna had announced ice wine frost temperatures for Friday two days in advance, all was set for the big occasion.

All our cellar staff, even our Frau Baumgartner, who otherwise is responsible for shaking of the sekt bottles, had to face the icy temperatures  (- 9.5°C) to bring the frozen grapes into the winery as quickly as possible.

Until then, the Muskateller grapes had been hanging in the vineyards, protected by bird netting. The frost only freezes the water in the berries, the sugary extract has a much lower freezing point. When the grapes are pressed, the oily extract flows out and leaves the water as ice together with the skins. With a very high  32° KMW (Klosterneuburger Mostwaage, the Austrian sugar measuring unit for wine), our Muskateller essence is of extraordinary sweetness and quality.

As we have also been able to harvest a Riesling Beerenauslese from the Heiligenstein, the 2005 vintage will show all the wonderful facets and varieties of the fruits of our vineyards, from sparkling to sweet wines.

The harvested amount is very small (we have not yet seen the numbers), but very probably of outstanding quality.

The first white wine, (Grüner Veltliner L+T 2005) will be sold in January 2006. The sweet wines of this vintage will be bottled and sold probably in 2007.