October 9, 2014: News, Vintages

Harvest 2014: Rain makes winemakers nervous

As we expected, harvest is in full swing throughout the Mosel, Ruwer and Saar (see the proud teams at the Van Volxem Estate here below) but rain makes winemakers nervous.

(images: Weingut Van Volxem, all rights reserved)

Here the key takeaways for the week:

• Riesling harvest under way at most Estates (with Vorlese mostly), with the Geltz-Zilliken Estate among those only starting next Monday.
• No easy ride: spells of rain in between sunshine this week and forecasts uncertain for next week as well (but rain during harvest is nothing unusual in Mosel).

• Kabinett-Spätlese vintage so far, with good sugar levels and good acidity (on paper a slightly cooler version of 2012).

Here some picturesque impressions from the first (Vorlese) grapes at the Egon Müller Estate and a battery of clean stainless steel tanks ready for service at the Dr. Hermann Estate.

(images: Weingut Egon Müller / Dr. Hermann, all rights reserved)