Vintages

year

2000

Vintage

The season started well enough. Bud break was fairly early, we were spared by the spring frosts and May and June were hot and dry. The wines flowered 2 to 3 weeks earlier than normal and everything seemed set for another great vintage.

July however was the coldest on record and the wettest for the last 20 years or vice versa. The growth of the wines and the development of the grapes all but stopped and only the diseases thrived. August was fine but not hot enough to stop the development of the infections and we had to continue spraying our vineyards until August 20th. September also was warm and wet and when the grapes started to ripen Botrytis appeared almost immediately.

In October the predictions were for a copious harvest of average quality. We started harvesting on October 16 and rapidly picked our lesser vineyards that are destined for our „Scharzhof“ Qualitätswein. Here the yields were still quite good, averaging 55 hl/ha. The weather was fine and the grapes started to dry up and when we started picking in Wiltinger braune Kupp and Scharzhofberg on the 23rd the ripeness levels had gone up but the quantity was down dramatically. About half was Kabinett, one third Spätlese and the rest Auslese but we only harvested 29 hl/ha in the braune Kupp and 22 hl/ha in the Scharzhofberg.

Until November 1st, selective picking was rewarded and we were able to make a Trockenbeerenauslese from Scharzhofberg that might rival its counterpart from 1999. 

While 2000 is certainly not going to be another 1999, the wines show good concentration of fruit and a fine acidity balance.