Vintage 2013 will go down in history as a crazy wine year with extreme conditions.

A very long, persistent winter did not give spring a chance. Bud burst and flowering period were significantly delayed. At temperatures above 30°C, flowering period began end of June. Shortly afterwards, the temperatures dropped again. Due to this wet and cold weather at the end of the floraison not every flower turned into a berry.

A hailstorm in June brought back bad memories of 2011. Fortunately the hailstones were already softened and only affected the fruit slightly.

This terrible weather was followed by a delightful, hot and dry July and August and allowed the grapes` development to catch up.

The wet, pretty warm late -summer dampened our cheerful mood again and caused a certain nervousness.

But our patience to delay starting the grape picking on 18 October was rewarded by a wonderful dry weather period with cool nights and sunny days. Due to the weather before, the berries were thin-skinned and good botrytis came up. The concentration of the grapes increased enormously, but the yield was decreasing constantly at the same time.

During the first days, we harvested the first mature grapes selectively. The rapid progress of botrytis and the breakable stems forced us to harvest much quicker. In addition to our faithful, long-time helpers, we mobilized more friends and relatives to help out. This allowed us to complete the harvest with up to 28 pickers by 31 October. Immediately afterwards, it was cold and rainy again.

The quality is much better than expected. We only harvested a few grapes for basic –wines; we have mainly picked Kabinett-, Spät- and Auslese-quality. Admittedly the quantity is leaving a lot to be desired. With only about 50% of a regular crop, it is even less that in 2010.
Nevertheless, we are grateful for the valuable Rieslings, which are showing plenty of finesse, complexity and good structure.

Weingut Willi Schaefer, Febr. 2014