2024

Outstanding

The 2024 vintage wines are refined and elegant, surprisingly delicate and lively.

Following a hot August, we began to harvest early and were able to achieve stimulating freshness with moderate alcohol content in the white wines, and fine tannins in the reds.

The year’s timeline looked like this: After yet another wet winter, temperatures by March had already reached 30° C (86° F) and vine shoot growth appeared three weeks earlier than the historic norm.

By the third week of April, a cold snap had hit with temperatures just above freezing. We avoided late frost damage thanks to the immense Lake Neusiedl capacity for surface water heat-storage. Within a short time, weather conditions then imroved and flowering started in mid-May, earlier than ever before.

However, things also turned patchy by mid-May with hail and humid “fungal weather”, circumstances which always mean that protecting organic plants is going to prove a real challenge.

At the end of June, we experienced our first real hot days when temperatures reached 34° C (93° F) and warm, dry foehn winds blew. Fortunetly, nights were still on the cool side.

Continuing into summer, very unpleasant heat and drought conditions hit us over long spells. Under such extreme heat, vegetation was to grow slowly and ripening took alittle longer. The berries remained small with thick skin, characteristics that were ultimately to prove decisive in making for a high quality vintage.

Picking of the early varieties began on August 16, while the main harvest took place at the end of August.

September temperatures hovered above 30° C (86° F) which made for a though time working in the vineyard. Once we had delivered warm grapes to the cellar, the refrigeration system then cooled them to a processing temperature for which our huge photovoltaic system provides us renewable power.

Beating the heavy rains that arrived in mid-September, all the white grapes as well as the more sensitive red wine varieties had been harvested. The Blaufränkisch grapes made it through this force of nature unblemished. Before fall even began, we had completed the harvest by September 21.

The wines are spicy and fresh, and nicely balanced with harmonious moderate alcohol levels. As for red wines, the briefer contact with skin ensures extremely fine, stimulating tannins. Representing output from the smallest harvest in the last 30 years, a great vintage is now maturing in the barrels.