Happy faces during picking time are indicating a wonderful vintage 2015!

Last summer was heavenly, not only for sun worshippers. Our grapes matured perfectly and the anticipation for the upcoming harvest was massive.
Mid September brought more rain than we were hoping for. But we had great luck. The rainfall stopped again soon, followed by wind, cool nights and not to warm days. It could not have been better. The skins of the berries were thinned; the grapes were mature, combined with a lovely acidity and a good, moderate Botrytis. Very optimistically we started harvesting 1st October 2015.

Due to the dry weather there was no reason to hurry and we had plenty of time to pre-harvest each parcel selectively. The remaining grapes took advantage from the longer hanging time until we picked these golden, small berries in the second half of the harvest. Temporary the temperatures dropped down to 1°C. In the morning of 14th October there was even a bit of snow in the upper vineyards and in Graach-Schäferei, where Willi and Esther are living. But this „winter intermezzo“ was very brief and sunny autumn days were following soon.
It was a great pleasure to see the process of maturation and we are very grateful that nature did not provide further mischief. But it seems that a certain excitement is strongly related to our profession.

Besides our long-term helpers we got further support from our family and friends again. Jonathan and Jakob were looking forward to the picking season crazily. Monika, Christoph’s aunt with husband Peter and further friends were attracted by “alpine vineyard experiences”. The “Oberrotweil-harvest-gang” with Andrea’s brothers Thomas and Armin with girlfriend Katja and winegrower-colleague Siegmund, demonstrated that they are very skilled in the steep slopes, too, although they just have finished their own harvest.

Our last Riesling grapes were picked 27th Oktober 2015 at nightfall.

Now the musts are fermenting and we are looking forward very much to fruity basic wines, elegant Kabinetts, nobel Spät- and Auslesewines, crowned by a Beerenauslese. A vintage which fulfills all wishes.

Weingut Willi Schaefer, November 2015