Vintage Report 2004 ...

During the moderately warm summer the vines had a much easier life than in the extremely hot 2003 vintage. While ripening slowly, due to the moderate temperatures accompanied by sufficient water during the ripening season, the grapes were not quite ripe at normal harvest times. The fall turned out to be rather cold and wet, and we had to wait for the phenolic ripeness to occur in the grapes.

With all that, the start of the harvest was not until the last days of October and stretched over all of November into December, since we had to interrupt harvest several times. This was the latest harvest in our winery since 1994.

The ripeness of the grapes was good, but not exceptional so we decided not to produce any Auslese in this vintage.

After fermentation the young wines showed good minerality with a pronounced acidity, which soon after started to integrate and made the 2004 wines develop nicely during the first year after the vintage. The wines have mellowed very nicely and are great wines to enjoy young.