The 2011 was year of extreme! It started with a bland spring and high temperatures caused a very early bud burst in April. In May a really bad late frost caused a lots of damage to the vines all over Germany. We had luck, no frost in our region at the Kaiserstuhl. The blossom was two weeks earlier than average and due to the high temperatures we have startet to irrigate our young vines in May. In June we got some rain finally. The great challenge was to pick out the right time for the green harvest. If you reduce the crop to early you get too huge bunches. We tended to a late green harvest end of August and could delay the ripening process through that a bit.

Nevertheless we have started with the harvest in the 2nd week of September and carried slowly on picking fruits at their perfect maturity stage. End of September we finally had to hurry a bit to pick the last grapes before the sugar levels of the fruits got higher and higher….

Compairing to 2009 and 2010 we had a higher crop. The quality of the fruits at harvest time was very good. We were happy about the stunning fruit flavours at fermentation. Most of our wines were fermented spontanous and we were rewarded with remarkable fruity and ripe aromas.

A great year, especially for the white wines!