The Green Harvest

For several days now we've been occupied with thinning the crop, known as ‘the green harvest.’ The number of clusters will be reduced, which ensures full ripening of the remaining grapes. 

The two to three clusters per shoot are reduced to one—and it's of no small importance, which cluster remains; as a rule, it's the lowest one on the shoot. 

And if possible, it should hang without any contact to the other bunches of grapes, and spend a decent amount of time each day in the sunshine—although too much sun

would mean sunburn, just like for the people working the vines.

It's easy to see that this calls for particularly meticulous work, and costs us more time in the vineyard than any other activity during the grower's year.

 

Weingut Kollwentz

Burgenland

www.kollwentz.at

We've got boundless energy, where our vineyards are concerned!

The shoots have achieved their full length, and will now be pruned to half a
metre above the topmost wire. This prevents the shoot from snapping off at
the wire, and any resultant reduction in the height of the canopy. There
should be about 10-25 primary leaves on each shoot. More leaves than this
costs the vine too much energy, while too few leaves lead
to inadequate development of sugar in the cluster. An exacting job; rotating
knives are used to trim the shoots.

Weingut Kollwentz
Burgenland
www.kollwentz.at

Cultivation of the Soil, Part Two

We also cultivate the soil between the individual vines. With the Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Noir, as well as the Cabernet, we use a swivel-mounted arm which crumbles the soil

and chops up the vegetation. One certain disadvantage of this is the speed— .8 - 1.3 kilometres per hour. The advantage, compared with more aggressive and incisive systems, is that it forms no furrows, which

could lead to earth washing away during the next heavy rainfall.

Weingut Kollwentz

Burgenland

www.kollwentz.at

Cultivation of the Soil-Part 1, the Disc Harrow.

Now that the vines are finished with flowering—under ideal weather conditions, btw—we turn our attention to matters concerning the soil and its cultivation. Recent rainfall deposited some 120 litres of water per square metre onto our vineyards, which the ground happily accepted. And since we've had such heat in the past couple days, the topsoil is in perfect condition for cultivation. In our Pannonian climate, we have to reckon nowadays with increasing dryness, and for this reason we only did a cursory job of working over every other row. For this, depending upon the condition of the ground, we use  a cultivator—or as you see in the pictures, a disc harrow. Because of the contrary disposition of the discs and the oblique angle of their relation to one another, the soil is only lightly broken up, and the vegetation slightly chopped and lightly worked into the soil. This breaks up the capillary layers in the ground, hence reduces the amount of water lost to evaporation.

 

Weingut Kollwentz

Burgenland

www.kollwentz.at

...and now the greenery is growing!

We've got adequate moisture in the soil, sunshine and warm weather; everything is growing—the vines and the ground cover as well. One of our current tasks involves working biomass into these surfaces. Approximately three weeks before blossoming—or when the ground-cover grows to the point that that the vines would get too little light and air—that's when we get to mulching. Over the course of a few weeks, the ground-cover releases vital nutrients that the vine now has available to it at the time when it needs nourishment the most—at blossoming. Some of the lanes between the vine-rows will be turned-over with the cultivator. This depends upon the soil, as well as upon the grape variety and its current nutritional condition.
www.kollwentz.at

Planting Vines

We've just planted the new grapevines!

First we loosen the earth to a depth of 40 cm with a tractor and a planting-plough.

Then we place the new vines in a rotating gripping arm, which sets each one into a freshly opened aperture in the soil.

After this, the earth is tamped down lightly.

With the help of laser-beam technology, we can plant the vines in rows that are as straight as a poker, although the older tracts are not so well suited for this.

In those instances, we lay a wire along the vine-row, and follow it with the machinery.

Now the vines have even been christened by St Peter—and a hearty 'God Bless' on that account!

Weingut Kollwentz

Römerhof GmbH

Hauptstraße 120

A - 7051 Großhöflein

Tel. +43 2682 65158

Fax +43 2682 65158 13

kollwentz@kollwentz.at

www.kollwentz.at

Bottling...

over the course of the past two weeks we bottled the white wines.
the best part of this: the aromas!
...and no matter how lovely a glass of wine might be, there's really nothing like sticking your head in the not-quite-empty bottling tank,
and enjoying a remarkable experience: the bouquet of 6oo litres of wine, along with the additional 4400 litres of aroma-filled air!

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

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