We finished this year’s harvest recently. This few weeks perhaps the most intensive period of wine making but it is important that the whole year’s work is behind the harvest. Furthermore the success of the given year is not only depend on us but also on the weather so it is worth to be aware what happened in the vineyards in 2019.
When evaluating a given vintage we can not neglect the previous year. It is important where we started from. In the summer of 2018 the number of sunshine hours were high, so in the buds a sufficient initiative bunch could form to ensure the quantity of the harvest in 2019. The winter of 2018/19 was mild and poor in rain so the sticks have ripen well and there were no frost damage. But unfortunately some vermin also survived the winter and we had to pay attention to them.
The first quarter of 2019 was poor in rain. The shooting at some places – in connection with lack of rain – were quite slow. Spring was late a bit and May also brought unusually cold days. But from June to the veraison there were no such week when it wasn’t rain. This was the most critical period but the grape survived it nicely. Luckily the weeks around the blossoming were dry so the bunches developed nicely. The veraison of the varieties started according to the average of many years.
In the aspect of pest control we closed a year with challenges but thanks to the careful green work and the organic treatments – and to the dry Autumn weather – everything went well. All these prove that organic farming works excellently in the plantation.
“During the harvest we went to the vineyards many times. Mainly the steep areas needed more attention – says Andrea Gere. Since the sugar percentages of the grapes in the same slope are different depending on their location in the upper or lower parts. So in these cases different harvest date were determined for the best quality. We pursued this despite of the additional work. All in all the rhythm of the annual ripening, the tastes and gusts, the acids, the phenol ripeness were advantageous. We harvested fresh, fruity, tasty berries in 2019.”
