November 4, 2014: News, Vintages

Harvest 2014 update: the end is near

Last harvest update as the harvest comes to a close now...

(images: Dr. Loosen / St. Urbans-Hof / Heribert Kerpen, all rights reserved)

The Dr. Hermann and Guenther Steinmetz Estates finished Wednesday, the Max Ferd Richter finished last Monday and Erni Loosen from Dr. Loosen hopes to be through by the weekend.

Weather has been pretty gorgeous in the last days (in fact as in most years around this period) and the last ones are putting the pedal to the medal to get finished.

Some even stroll around and find the time to make BA and TBA, as Nik Weis at the St. Urbans-Hof Estate in his holdings in the Ockfener Bockstein. And yes, those grapes look disgusting to the inexperienced eye but wet the eyes of the botrytized Riesling lover.

What do harvest teams when the harvest is over? They feast (here at the Kerpen Estate), pose proudly with their last grapes (Weiser-Künstler) or play a game of football (here the harvest teams of the Knebel and Heymann-Löwenstein Estates).

(images: Weiser-Künster / Knebel / Heymann-Löwenstein, all rights reserved)

So far, 2014 seems a little remake of 2013, not in terms of acidity, but in the overall ripeness contrast between Saar (with lower sugar levels and cleaner grapes) and Mosel (with higher sugar levels and often botrytis at play).

However, while the growing season was far from easy, with rain and mild weather, but, as we mentioned already a few times, nothing which kills good Riesling grapes and which a competent winemaker cannot handle.

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