Vintage Report 2003 ...

The hottest vintage since the 16th century. According to research out of monastery records, this extremely hot vintage has no modern parallel. Even though some of the old vintners compare the vintage to the legendary 1959, where acid levels were low but concentration was high.

In our winery, the vines in the top terraces of the Uhlen dried up completely, preventing the vines from producing any useable fruit, while in the locations where enough water was available to the vines, the grapes achieved enormous ripeness with hardly any botrytis.

Botrytised berries for Trockenbeerenauslese were rather rare but could be selected during many hours of sorting. We made a small amount of TBA at 240 degrees Oechsle.

The other wines had great ripeness as well. Nothing was harvested below the Spätlese ripeness level. The wines show a combination of rich and ripe fruit aromas and a very distinct creaminess due to the high percentage of tartaric acid instead of the normally more prevalent malic acid. This made the wines less aproachable when young but will allow them to age well for a long future.

Tasting the wines in the spring of 2006 shows them to develop fast towards a more elegant balance than they had in their first 24 months.

A great vintage to put down and enjoy later.