• WINERY
• HISTORY
• WINES
• EVENTS
• CONTACT

2011 | 2010 | 2009 | 2008 | 2007 | 2006 | 2005 | 2004 | 2003 | 2002 | 2001

Vintage Report 2011

SINCE CENTURIES: THE MAGIC "ELEVENTH” VINTAGES
VINTAGE REPOPRT 2011

Since centuries, the "eleven” is the magic number for years of outstanding good vintages: Vintage 1811 was praised by Goethe as "Comet Wine” because of a famous comet, 1911 was supposed to be the very best of last century, and now 2011 follows with another spectacular "eleventh”- vintage.

In the records of my family estate, dating back for more than 230 years until 1780, I can't find any dates for harvesting before October. Also in my personal memory, looking back from my age of almost 80 years, my traditional family estate never started to harvest our Riesling before October and mostly finished around end of October or beginning of November, sometimes after the first snowfall. This year 2011, we had to start selective hand-picking already in mid September and finished in the first week of October, around three weeks earlier than normal.
In spring, the vegetation of the vines started extremely early, followed by wonderful warm and dry weeks in summer, but later in August record rainfall and humidity, finally the "happy end” thanks to sunny and dry September with cool nights. Under these climate conditions, the botrytis - the famous "noble rot”, has grown rapidly, the grapes shriveled, the liquidity from the grapes evaporated, the natural sugar content as well the aromas and minerals concentrated by natural reduction.

Again this year, the result is ambivalent: The quantity of the yield is much smaller than expected and reached only 2/3rd of normal, but the quality surpassed any optimstic expectation. For the vast majority of the harvested grape-must, the natural sugar content, reached the Spätlese and Auslese level often above 100 ° Oechsle, balanced against a wonderful delicate acidity. After very careful hand-picking to select the grapes with botrytis from green grapes, I am most happy to have also two small casks of TBA, one with the record of 206° Öchsle.

Now, towards the end of fermentation, the young wines smell delicious with abundant bouquet of exotic fruits, crystal clean and fresh aroma combined with elegant acidity. The vintage 2011 confirms the magic rule that the "eleventh” belongs to the best of each century. For every year, it is the nature under the open sky, what causes the quality. Like in any agriculture, human skill and modern technique can only try to make the best out of what nature is donating.

For the upcoming year 2012, I am very confident to supply to my customers around the globe another excellent estate-bottled Hochheimer Riesling from vintage 2011.