‘Until the main harvest, each of the 25,000 grapes on average passes through my hands up to 4 times, that's a total of up to 100,000 contacts.’
Minimally invasive viticulture
Maximum freedom for vines and nature
The basic conceptual idea is to intervene as little as possible in the local biome based on the current data and studies in all areas and techniques of viticulture (see above, cf. olive growing). On the one hand, this results in optimised health and longevity of the vines in terms of sustainability. On the other hand, nature is given as much space as possible without the use of fossil fuels and with a minimal CO2 imprint.
‘An integral part of this concept of manual labour is also to allow the vines, olive groves, animals and people to rest in this natural environment.’
The various work steps include pruning, wood-extraction, green work with shoot reduction, looping in the shoots, defoliating the grape zone, halving the grapes, looping the shoot tips back into the wire frame and pre-harvesting (see above).
‘In the course of caring for the 1,300 vines, I'm working on each plant 8 to 10 times a year, which means I'm in individual contact around 10,000 times a year.’
Quality
- Vine pruning diploma from the University of Bordeaux, training at Chateau d`Yquem, Haut-Bailly etc.
- Completely handcrafted
- Use of high-carbon and therefore extremely sharp Japanese Bara-Tsukuri shears, which produce a very clean, even cut
- the physiological cut per stick produces an average of 4 very small wounds on the top of the ramifications
- these have surfaces that are hardly at risk of infection and heal quickly through drying
Harvest
- First selection pass after colour change with removal of all developmentally delayed, uncoloured grape components
- Second pass the day before the main harvest with highly selective removal of unfit, contaminated grapes
- Accurate manual main harvest into small boxes weighing 10 kg
- This avoids pressure-related berry damage and must formation in the collection container, which can lead to premature oxidation and the development of off-flavours in the grapes
Inertisation and tamping
- Covering and cooling of the harvested material with inert gas (argon) and lid sealing in the field
- This prevents oxidative processes in the field
- Rapid onward transport to the winery and prompt start of the pressing process
- Crushing the grapes - ethymologically Latin ‘calcare’, meaning ‘to press’ - is a traditional pressing method
- Pinot Blanc and Silvaner are already crushed in the field
- This results in gentler processing on the press, which is accompanied by less lees formation due to shearing forces on the one hand and softening of the skins in the field due to pectin release for better pressability on the other hand
- the grape seeds remain intact and cannot release any bitter substances
- Pinot Gris and Pinot Noir are crushed at the winery before being fed into the press