| A magnificent early autumn has come over the landscape, and the sunny days and still relatively mild nights of the last week have taken out of our vineyards the last remaining moisture lingering after the preceding, rainy weeks. Now the last remaining leaves of the grape zone are removed, the berries are perfectly prepared for the harvest.
Wherever one looks in the vineyards, the harvest has begun, and this year good wines can only be made if every bunch is cut into several parts by hand and a selected according to quality...not a vintage for mechanical harvesters, which rip everything of the vine regardless!
At the moment we are still harvesting for grape juice and base wine for our sparkling wines, where lightness and freshness are especially important. The whole bunches are pressed slowly in pneumatic press with a maximum pressure of 2 Bar, which is roughly equivalent off their pressure exerted by a tree press, all by naked feet in stone vats. They pneumatic press may not be as personal and human as the traditional stone vats in which grapes were crushed by naked feet, but it is considerably more hygienic.
We expect that the sugar gradations will rise quickly during the following days, the temperatures remained an exciting factor. Sunny, dry days in cool nights would be ideal. |
