Harvest 2020 has started

With warm days and cool nights, the 2020 harvest is in full swing – and the current golden autumn is warmly welcome.

Budbreak in the vineyards began in mid-April, a bit later than usual because of cold temperatures in late March: what was disastrous for the local apricot orchards proved ideal for the grapes. Flowering was delayed as well, moving at a gentle pace between the first and third week of June. Overall, the summer brought mixed weather conditions, while presenting a great challenge on August 22: a powerful hailstorm hit the Wachau, damaging several vineyards throughout the region.

“We are now hoping for the golden autumn to continue,” our winemaker Heinz Frischengruber reports. “Due to the heavy hailstorm and a lot of rain, grapes in some areas of the Wachau have suffered marginal damage. It will be a harvest of extremes, with a lot of handwork and manual selection. In years like these, we see the huge advantage of harvesting by hand. Only with the detailed selection of healthy grapes, we can produce great wines.”