January 28, 2010
We are having a very hectic period right now in both the winery and the vineyard. A lot of wines have to be blended and moved around. Franz Jr is doing most of the work in the vinery, and he is very busy this time of the year. Same goes for me. I don’t lie if I say that someone is calling every hour to ask for wines to buy, or just to know when the vintage will be ready.
Today is our biggest concern the weather though. We had -23C in the vineyard tonight which is a critical temperature. There is a big risk that the vines have been damaged by the frost. Down to 17-18 is usually no problem, but below that… Some grape varieties are more sensitive than other, like the blue zweigelt, but we can only wait and see. We will have the answer in springtime. It has been a very cold winter, like you have had in Sweden too. The ground has been covered in snow for 2-3 weeks now and the temperature has been very low. This makes the work with the pruning very tough. We prune the wines from beginning of December to end of February/beginning of March. This is done every year to keep the number of bunches down, to get good concentration in the must. Lots of grapes from every vine gives very diluted wines, and that is not our philosophy. During the harvest, in the beginning of October, we had 26-27C. I have never ever experienced such a warm harvest. (it is hard to believe when I look out and see the rime on the trees! 50C difference between summer and winter!) The hot weather during harvest led to the fact that this vintage’s wines are a little bit softer and with a lower acidity than last year. This is what I think is so wonderful with working with wine; you can never know from year to year what to expect!
Franz Leth
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