First frost, then hail, then, finally, a golden late summer

Both the German Wine Institute and the Verband Deutscher Prädikatsweingüter released their vintage reports for 2011 last week. According to those reports the 2011 wines will be of very good quality, albeit with strong regional fluctuations because… you guessed it. In 2011 the vines flowered extremely early in the spring. Unfortunately, regions like Franconia and Württemberg were hit hard when frost in May caused significant damage in the vineyards, resulting in yields which for some growers in these regions were as low as those in 2010.

In July rain threatened to swell and dilute the berries. Things got even worse when a hail storm dumped lumps of ice as big as tennis balls onto vineyards in the Mosel, Rheingau, Rheinhessen und Baden, destroying as much as 50% of the harvest for some growers. Where hail is, rot is often not far. But, luckily, the weather turned. Frustrations and hardship for the German winegrower came to an end with a dry and sunny August. September offered perfect conditions for one of the earliest harvests in history (earlier even than the hot 2003 vintage), allowing growers to selectively and unhurriedly pick their grapes well into October, thus allowing particular Riesling to ripen further while retaining its acidity thanks to cool night times. At the time of writing, growers along the Mosel, the Saar and in part of Rheinhessen are still harvesting Riesling, excited to reap the benefits of a long growing season.

The German Wine Institute says that yields in 2011 were back to the average yield of the last ten years (which means they were up 30% compared to 2010, no wonder growers are relieved). But what about quality? Merriness from the VDP, for grapes were harvested between 85° and 130° Oechsle. Some growers were even able to pick Trockenbeerenauslese wines at over 300° Oechsle. Happiness not only amongst the VDP members, of course. Stefan Steinmetz from Weingut Günther Steinmetz reports between 88° and 105° Oechsle in his Mosel vineyards Brauneberger Juffer, Wintricher Geierslay and Dhroner Hofberg. The gorgeous late summer and fall weather in Germany put an initially shaky vintage onto a firm pedestal of perfectly ripened and healthy grapes that retained plenty of acidity thanks to the slow and long ripening period towards the end of the harvest.

Lotte Pfeffer-Müller from the Rheinhessen estate Brüder Dr. Becker says: "2011 will yield light wines with consumer-friendly alcohol contents of 11.5-12%. The wines’ natural acidity will enhance their fruit structure. Remarkable feature of the year: frost, rain, and hail left their mark – as in 2010, the average must weights of this vintage will yield lots of Kabinett wines, which is something we’ve seldom seen during the past twenty years, but a positive development." Winemaker Dirk Würtz from Rheinhessen writes on his blog that particularly wines with residual sugar and dry wines from the top sites seem most promising at this point, "with very unusual aromas."

There is a lot of excitement in Germany about 2011 at this point. The VDP speaks of a "very good vintage comparable to those of the previous years" whereas the German Wine Institute even labeled it "outstanding". We will see, once the wines have been bottled, which is something we are officially entitled to look forward to.