Icy days...

We've never seen our vineyards covered in a carapace of ice like they are this year.
Fascinating! And thank goodness, this should ultimately not damage the vines...

Weingut Kollwentz
Römerhof GmbH
Hauptstraße 120
A - 7051 Großhöflein
Tel. +43 2682 65158
Fax +43 2682 65158 13
kollwentz@kollwentz.at
www.kollwentz.at

See the full gallery on Posterous

Roasted bacon in the Leithagebirge

...and now comes time to tidy up the woods.
The best part of this is roasting bacon on hazel-boughs—
despite the temperature being -6°C/21°F, it doesn't feel cold;
and of course we've earned a sip or two of the 2012 rosé along with this...


Weingut Kollwentz
Römerhof GmbH
Hauptstraße 120
A - 7051 Großhöflein
Tel. +43 2682 65158
Fax +43 2682 65158 13
kollwentz@kollwentz.at
www.kollwentz.at

See the full gallery on Posterous

We've picked the Beerenauslese!

We made the most of the only unrainy day, and harvested our Scheurebe before the snow arrived.

How was it outside? Ice-cold and windy!

What did we get for our efforts? After twenty hours pressing, we have 350 litres of Beerenauslese with a must-weight of 145° Oechsle.

That corresponds to some 290 grams of sugar in a litre of must...
 

The fermentation is likely to take about four weeks.

Stay tuned for further reports!

Weingut Kollwentz
Römerhof GmbH
Hauptstraße 120
A - 7051 Großhöflein
Tel. +43 2682 65158
Fax +43 2682 65158 13
kollwentz@kollwentz.at
www.kollwentz.at

See the full gallery on Posterous

Labelling

Winter's coming and the season is about to begin;

the wines need to be on their way to the restaurateurs—

so now the labels go on the bottles...

Weingut Kollwentz

Römerhof GmbH

Hauptstraße 120

A - 7051 Großhöflein

Tel. +43 2682 65158

Fax +43 2682 65158 13

www.kollwentz.at

See the full gallery on Posterous

The reds are pressed...

Our red wines are drained from the fermentation tanks, and led through a long system of hoses down into the cellar. Protective airlocks in the casks—keeping it clean! The grape-mash is run through the press; this press-wine will be treated separately. And tomorrow is the big wash-day in the Kollwentz winery!

Weingut Kollwentz

www.kollwentz.at

See the full gallery on Posterous

Finishing up the white wine harvest in Ried Gloria

we've got the best possible weather for picking our Chardonnay grapes, here in the highest-elevation vineyard on the Leithebirge, the Gloria.

www.kollwentz.at

See the full gallery on Posterous

the Birds and the Beasts...

there will be less Tatschler Chardonnay this year: the wild pigs have devoured 20% of the grapes. Up in Ried Gloria they've thus far —thankfully — still been hunting for grubs.

— but the birds of the forest like the flavour of grapes as well, and have been helping themselves...

www.kollwentz.at

See the full gallery on Posterous

A curious jumble in the cellar-what's going on here?

The two tanks in the middle between the barrels—we call them 'companion tanks'

If you didn't see the corresponding installment of 'What's new?,' here's the explanation:

If a horse spent too much time by itself in the stall, it would quite often develop behavioural problems. But if you were to put another creature in the stall with it—even if it were a goat—these temperamental difficulties did not occur. So the expression arose, 'companion goat.'

Our barrels are filled with must before the onset of fermentation. During fermentation, carbon dioxide is produced, and this would cause the barrels to overflow—for this reason we put a couple little tanks next to them, into which we divert a portion of the must during the most violent phase of the fermentation. Afterwards the must can very gently—that means with least motion and distance involved—be replaced in the barrels. So that's why we call them companion tanks.

www.kollwentz.at

Chardonnay harvested from the Ried Neusatz

Perfect grapes — delicious and sweet; small berries — what more could one ask?

www.kollwentz.at

See the full gallery on Posterous

Falstaff Pinot-Family Trophy 2012

Things do indeed happen fast. A new generation of winegrowers — Hannes Reeh, Michael Kirchknopf and Rudi Wagentristl — took the prizes in the categories ‘Chardonnay Classic,’ ‘Weissburgunder,’ and ‘Leithaberg.’ At 43 years of age, one is already an ‘old master’ — and comes in ahead by a nose in the categories ‘Chardonnay Vins de Garde’ and ‘Reserve’ with Tatschler ’10 and Gloria ’07.

www.kollwentz.at

Picking the Sauvignon Blanc "Methusalemreben"

Today we harvested the Methusalemreben - the ancient Sauvignon Blanc vines in the Ried Steinmühle - terrific ripeness, perfectly healthy grapes.

2012 promises to be fabulous!

www.kollwentz.at

See the full gallery on Posterous

A walking-tour through the historical vineyards of the Leithagebirge

We had perfect weather for this: Anton and Andi Kollwentz led a group of passionate enthusiasts in exploring the vineyards Haussatz, Neusatz, Point, Setz, Tatschler, Dürr and Gloria.

...and of course it wouldn't have been complete without a bit of a bite to eat at the end—accompanied, naturally,  by wines from the vineyard sites we had visited.

www.kollwentz.at

See the full gallery on Posterous