Blending the Steinzeiler

We are taking advantage of a couple rainy days to blend our 2017 Steinzeiler.

First, we taste the various lots.

Then the individual components are blended together to create the cuvée, and the casks are washed out.

Next, we burn sulphur in the barrels, and the Steinzeiler goes back into cask for an additional 18 months.

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Work in the vineyards

We are now hard at work in our vineyards, with three tractors and a team of eleven.

Dali is clearing out unwanted growth from around the base of the vines, using an implement that cuts weeds with rotating filaments.

Kollwentz Senior is loosening the topsoil with a disc harrow.

Most of our other co-workers are ‘threading’ vine shoots on the trellis wires.

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Mulching

The greencover is being mulched – this once more provides a great quantity of organic material as fodder for the earthworms,
while the layer of mulch also guards against the topsoil drying out.

The organic material will decompose and the resulting nutrients
will be available to the vines during flowering in three weeks – at the time of greatest need.

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Planting grapevines in the Katterstein

We are planting a vineyard up in the Ried Katterstein, situated high above Kleinhöflein and Eisenstadt.

Here, the Chardonnay vines in this southeast-oriented site are rooted in stony soil.

In the upper part it’s mica schist, while limestone predominates in the rest of the vineyard.

To the north and the east, the forests of the Leitha Range border the vineyard; to the west are orchards, meadows, more vineyards and ultimately the Ried Tatschler
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Working the soil

We are now cultivating the soil in our vineyards for the first time this year.

 

Earth is massed around the vines. This actuates the flow of nitrogen so the vines can grow better,

as well as reducing the danger from cutworms, which are fond of devouring the young shoots and buds.

 

The warm temperatures encourage rapid growth of the shoots, and with this the vines grow away, one might say, from the cutworms.

 

Greencover in the vineyard is loosened with the harrow – flexibly banked steel pins – and little uneven patches are smoothed out.

 

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Pruning comes to an end

Our last Chardonnay vine in Ried Gloria has been pruned, and the sun reaches through the morning fog.

 

Now only two days to go and we'll be done with the Cabernet Sauvignon as well.

We customarily finish with Cabernet, since this is the last variety to sprout at our estate in the springtime.

 

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Biting and bitter cold

The temperature over the next few days looks to be -10°C and lower.

 

We are taking advantage of this to facilitate tartaric stabilisation.

 

Tartaric acid tends to form supersaturated solutions – which means that it should precipitate crystals (Weinstein), but thus far has not!

 

With a proper reduction in temperature this becomes easier.

 

Footnote: the bit of water standing on the bung has already frozen, and shows the logo of Tonnellerie Berthomieu in relief.

 

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