Quite a good year, compared to the 2014 vintage …

Cold and rainy May, which caused uneven flowering of vines, was followed by hot dry spells of extreme temperatures up to 41°C. The weather changed in the second half of August with 166 mm of rainfall during five days. Our worries increased proportionally with the increasing rainfall. The green berries coped with the abundant water and gradually increased their volume, but those more mature cracked. Fortunately, the bio-spray Aquavitrín (water glass) prevented the grapes from rot, because the damaged berries dried out and shriveled to cibeba raisins, enriching the harvest by additional flavors. The weather in September, with an average temperature of 16.5 °C and rainfall at the worst possible moments, was also not worth a lot, and October was in terms of grape ripening even worse. October 13 morning the temperature fell below 0 °C definitively terminating the ripening process.

            

Certified bio-production

Our vineyards were in conversion to bio-production since 2012. Today we can clearly say that the bio-protection fully proved itself, although it is more time-consuming, in particular as regards combating the weeds. We received for the first time bio-certificate of the grapes from the 2015 vintage as well as of the wine which will be produced from them.

Establishing or reconstruction of vineyards continues

We supplemented 460 grafts in the old Portugieser vineyard, constructed a trellis in the second half of Maxim’s vineyard, and continued in trellising of the young vines of Hron and Welsh Riesling. We are gradually preparing an exclusive plot in the Wolf Valley for planting of Pinot noir and Tramíner.

 

Grape harvest under looming rain

We succeeded in protecting the grapes from mildew and rot, but they were still threatened by rain and starlings. Almost all planned harvest dates had to be moved forward because of the imminent rain and instead of the usual weekends they took place during the week. Portugieser was harvested in two batches, the selected grapes for carbonique had sugar content 19°NM but the second batch did not please us with sugar content only 17°NM. We were pleased however by the promising virgin harvest of Dunaj- 24°NM, Devín- 23°NM and Rosa-22,5 °NM, as well as the very first few grapes of the young Welsh Riesling-19°NM. We managed to rescue from starlings few bunches of  excellent Veltlíner-21°NM and Welsh Riesling- 21°NM from the old vineyard. Abundant and healthy harvest of Frankovka was collected already 13. 10. because the temperature fell under zero and there was imminent rain. We were pleased that the sugar content was at least 22°NM. As soon as the grapes were in the cellar, it started to rain …

 

Natural wines

Our first certified bio-grapes encouraged us to continue further on our quest toward creation of natural „unplugged“ wines. Part of our Frankovka harvest was again stomped by feet and fermented in an open vat, and we mashed the Welsh Riesling on forefather Husar’s antique equipment. It fermented on skins in an open vat and was not sulfited at all. It is our very first orange wine. Part of the virgin harvest of Danube was processed by carbonic maceration and we neither sulfited, nor finned and filtered this wine, inspired by the French naturalists. We did not add sulfur dioxide also in the natural sparkling wine or PetNat (pétillant naturel), very popular among the natural wine makers.

                        

Wines from the 2015 vintage