Green Harvest

It is particularly difficult this year. There are too many clusters hanging
on some of our vines - these will be thinned out.

Many vines, though, are growing too few clusters because of the late frost
we suffered.
It's unfortunate that we can't transplant the surplus clusters from the
bountiful vines to the damaged vines.

The harvest this year will be appreciably reduced in volume.

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On the Katerstein

We are letting the leaf canopy in the vineyard Ried Katerstein spread out at
the moment, in order to provide the clusters with shade in the midday sun.

Today on the Leitha Range we are expecting temperatures of up to 35°C in the
shade.

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Defoliation.

It is also the right time to remove a few leaves and secondary shoots.

We are beginning now only on the side that receives the morning sunshine, to
allow the clusters to gradually become accustomed to more sunlight.

You can also clearly observe the varied stages of development in the grapes
- pellet-sized and larger on the good shoots,
still in the flowering stage on the frost-damaged shoots.

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Threading the shoots.

Sunshine, high temperatures and plenty of water in the ground serve to
generate greenhouse-like growing conditions.

Again and again, we work at threading the shoots into the wire trellis.
Because of the frost at the end of April, development of the shoots is very
uneven.

The healthy shoots have already grown beyond the top pair of wires and been
trimmed;
shoots that sprouted after the frost are threaded into the trellis on a
regular basis.

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Flowering

Flowering has begun. Abundant sunshine in recent days and a good supply of
nutrients has brought about a growth spurt,
and the leaf canopy will soon reach its full size.

Now we are hoping for warm and sunny days for the flowering. This is
necessary
to put the berries in good form. If the weather turns cold and rainy, what
we call 'Verreiseln' - shot berries or millerandage - can easily result.

In such cases the blossom is inadequately enriched and falls away; the
cluster will then have fewer grapes.
We shall know more in ten days.

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Blaufränkisch on the Third of June.

Our Blaufränkisch vines are showing the most widely varied stages of
development. Shoots that were damaged by frost are showing secondary growth,
with other shoots sprouting totally new from secondary buds. They either
bear no clusters, or their clusters are four weeks behind in developing.
Shoots that were not damaged by frost have already reached the top pair of
wires on the trellis; we are waiting for flowering, which is just about to
take place.

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Mulching the winter greenery

We are now mulching the last of the winter-growth vegetation - much to the
joy of the birds, who find their dinner table set with a feast.

If one looks closely at the vines, it is easy to tell the difference between
healthy shoots and those damaged by the frost.

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