The President of the Austrian Winegrowers' Association, Johannes Schmuckenschlager, expects a promising 2022 vintage with a slightly smaller harvest in a season that is challenging in terms of climate and costs, which we can totally confirm now at the end of the harvest.

The weather pattern in 2022 was challenging for a variety of reasons:

Cool and warm phases alternated in spring, although it was too dry overall. Shooting took place relatively late again this year, towards the end of April. In view of the looming danger of late frost, which usually lasts until mid-May, this was definitely a positive thing. Due to the warm weather, the vines started flowering relatively early. Then there was the long-awaited rain. Since these were recorded around flowering, a very sensitive stage of the vine during the course of vegetation, there was considerable fungal pressure. We were particularly challenged this year with the use of plant protection products, but on the whole we were able to prevent major damage, some plants suffered slight downy Peronospora damage, luckily we did not record any Oidium.

In July and August, the vines again had to contend with severe drought. Dry and hot days above 30 degrees Celsius were a significant challenge for the vines. In our young vineyards, we had to reduce the number of grapes significantly in order to relieve the strain on the vines.

At a time when most of the vineyards had already reached their "load limit" due to the drought, the long-awaited rain fell at the end of August and the grapes were able to ripen properly again.

In terms of volume, we recorded a minus of 25% across the entire company compared to the previous year. The vine set was consistently good, but due to the drought in the summer, the berries remained rather small and the juice yield was therefore lower than in previous years.

Nevertheless, we are very satisfied with the harvest. A few musts are still fermenting in the cellar, but most have fermented well without any major stress and have produced fruity, aromatic and rather light-footed dusty wines.

Last week we already bottled our young wine - Gemischter Satz 2022 - and we are very proud for many reasons:

1. it is the first organic wine 2022 certified by our control institute Lacon, which many more will follow.

2. we are extremely enthusiastic about the quality - fruity, sparkling, fresh

3. it is available now!