HARVEST REPORT - VINTAGE 2018
a summary for the MO-RHE- NA GROUP
The harvest 2018 turned out to be the most surprising one in many years and this concerned all German wine
growing areas. Nature proved to be totally unpredictable. After a rather small yield in 2017 - however with a
very satisfying quality - the overall result of the harvest 2018 is far above normal quantity.
The MO-RHE-NA estate partners can therefore assure all our business friends worldwide, that for the most
part prices will remain stable, in some areas they may slightly decrease. This will help you to offer our excellent
quality wines at reasonable prices.
Enjoy the year 2919 with German RIESLING and PINOT NOIR wines
our best wishes for a successful year 2019 and again thank you for your loyalty
Patrick Langguth, G.M. of the MO-RHE-NA Company
VISIT US AT VINEXPO BORDEAUX 2019 in hall 1 at our booth AB280-09
The MOSEL wine estate Ulrich Langguth reports:
As so many of my colleagues on the River Mosel, I, Patrick Langguth,
was convincedby the end of August that again a small crop was to be expected. We all saw the healthy and satisfying number of grapes on the vines but we
all wondered how the skin of the Riesling grapes could ever become thin to yield
sufficient juice. The continous nine weeks without any rain made us very nervous
and temperatures reaching almost 40° Celsius worried us extremely. As we are
not allowed to irrigate our vines we expected the worse. Yes, we then enjoyed
1-2 days of slight rainfall in the beginning of Serptember but that was all.
We were all misled!
From the first day of the harvest the juice result was astonishing even though
we still gently pressed our grapes. We had started picking our grapes by
September 19, the earliest start of any vintage recorded for us as small
premium wine producer. Due to the rather unexpected, huge volume that this
harvest offered the same last one week longer than expected. It turned out
to be the largest average yield that our family could remember over the last
50 years. With still very high sugar readings of mostly Auslese level and
impressive aromas we expect great wines, incl some specialities as Beerenauslese.
Due to the early harvest the 2018 wines will be partly finished for bottling by
spring.
The MOSEL wine estate Losen-Bockstanz reports
We are very satisfied with the result of the harvest 2018. Our sugar
reading turned out to be between 85° and 108° and allows us to bottle
soon qualities between Hochgewächs and great Auslese wines.
The results of the Pinot Noir grapes were even more impressive.
The grapes were healthy and the acidity mild. We shall be able to supply the
first Riesling Kabinett by February 2019.
The PFALZ WINE ESTATE , Merk, reports:
We never experienced such a year and our level of adrealin went
up and down.
The early budding by mid April made us fear that frost may damage
all grapes. Nothing happened. The continuing dryness made us
worry that we would only have a small harvest. We experienced the contrary
The sudden rain in late August finally relieved us . We never started
picking grapes as early as August 28 but the dy weather helped us
to gather all grapes at our ease.
All grape varietals showed healthy grapes of top quality.
The first fermented wines show a fine aroma and sufficient acity.
The RHEINGAU wine estate KAUFMANN & Hans Lang ( VDP ) reports
The year 2018 will not only be recorded as the warmest in decades
but it may also be compared with vintages such as 1947, 1994, 1976 or
2003. A too warm January was followed by a cold February. But that
was the end of winter time and cool temperatures. In the beginning of
April temperatures rose above normal level. They speeded up the
development of the vineyards. The budding took place 2 weeks earlier
than normal and this development continued through a very dry
summer until September with almost no rain fall.. By the end of August
the vineyards were almost 3 weeks ahead of normal with the result
that we started with the main harvest already by September 3.
Compared to previous years we hardly recorded any deseases as a
result of this dry summer and no damage by hail.
To summarize: it was the most relaxing wine year for us young vintners
and the harvest resulted in extreme high Oechsle degrees. We even
achieved our first TBA. The quantity result reached for the first time
the maximium quantity limit of 75 hectoliters, set by the VDP organization
for all members.
The PFALZ wine estate ANSELMANN reports
The owner, Ralf Anselmann proudly says: This was the best vintage ever!
The long lasting rain during winter and early spring have helped the
vineyards older than 10 years to hold water in the soil to produce an
outstanding yield even after such a dry summer. We relieved younger
vines from parts of their grapes and left these on the ground. This
prevented the vines from dryness stress. We were able to achieve a
maximum of quantity for all grape varietals which compensated us
with the small quantities produced in 2016 and 2017.
Almost all wines reached the Prädikat castegory
Sufficient Beerenauslese and TBA wines were being harvested and
and a smaller amount of icewines could be produced by the end of
January 2019.
We were espcially successful with the grape varietals Riesling, Pinot Gris
and Pinot Blanc. The red grape varietals show a deep colour and their
quality allows to let them raised in barrique.
We are also delighted to report that our yield in Gewürztraminer puts us
finally into a very competitive position. We can keep prices stable under
these circumstances. However, the glass manufactures raised their prices
for bottles and we have to calculate these increaed costs into our prices.
A number of the 2018 wines will be available early in 2019 and at Prowein
THE FRANKEN ( Franconian ) wine estate BRENNFLECK reports:
This was a super wine harvest and we recorded an avaregae yield of 76 hectoliters per hecttar
The OECHSLE = Sugar reading reached 90 degrees with the result that all wines remained
in the " Prädikat wine " category, no quality wine needed to be produced.
What an extraordinary result !
The SILVANER grape yielded the best results. In addition we recorded a year without any
hail and frost damage.
Prices remain unchanged.
The SAAR wine estate WÜRZBERG , owned by the family HERMES reports
of a GOLDEN autumn.
Fantastic weather, healthy grapes and top sugar readings.
The hot temperatures and sunny days paif of. This resulted in the earliest
beginning of the wine harvest we can think of in regards of our wine region.
We started of with the grape varietal AUXEROIS followed by the Burgundian grapes
( Pinot Noir, Pinot Gris and Pinot Blanc)
The RIESLING grapes were picked exactly 120 days after the flowering period.
The golden and healthy grapes were hand selected and yielded a super quality.
Our young team succeeded in making a selection of grapes which produced
an outstanding TBA ( Trockenbeernauslese) quality with 244 (!) degrees of sugar reading.
Our American friends may recall that this estate used to be owned many years
by BERT SIMON who was known for his great finesse wines. He received high scores
also by Parker.
It is now run by the onologist Felix nHEIMES and his wine maker Franz LENZ
... about another vintage with a yield much below everage.
First and above all and much to our amazement we experienced a budding period which already started by April 8-10. This is the earliest date our Senior, Ulrich Langguth, could ever remember during his past 55 years and even the wine university of Geisenheim published that the budding started 2 weeks earlier than usual. Daily temperatures rose to 18° Celsius during these days. We anticipated that the vines could soon be exposed to dangerous frost period.
Indeed, this happened in the night from April 19-20 when temperatures fell to -4° Celsius, in the side valleys of the Mosel River even to -5°C. During the following week we discovered much to our astonishment that the vines on our steep slopes had well survived and continued to blossom. We assume that we owe this positive development to the fact that we had a very dry period during the last 3-4 weeks with almost no moisture in the air. Any bit of rain the day before the frost happened would have caused a desaster. The dryness helped us that the vines survived. We were lucky.
The damage was confined to some side valleys of the River Mosel
The summer was much too dry but the vines got their water supply with their deep roots. Irrigation with water is still forbidden by law!!!! Temperatures were favourable through to the end of
August. By the beginning of September we encountered a period of rain just in time when the grapes started to be mature. Some areas of the Mosel suffered under heavy hail which hurt the grapes badly. By mid-September we started being worried as the rainy period caused the first signs of botrytis.
Quite a few producers became so nervous that they started harvesting by September 25. However a dry and sunny period began by the end of September and prevailed through most of October allowing us to hand-pick our grapes without pressure.
We expect the quality of the 2017 wines to be as good as the 2015 vintage, however, our yield was down by 30%, another small harvest which we have to put up with. Looking into the year 2018 and the following we are much concerned about this change of climate and we sincerely hope that the blossoming will NOT be as early as last year.
This report is issued in the beginning of February 2018 and already now we must report about a much too warm winter with almost no serious frost. Consequently we had another winter without the possibility to make icewine. Nature is already pushing.........!!?
The MOSEL wine estate LOSEN-BOCKSTANZ reports...
..that we had to put up with a yield down by 20% due to frost but alsoon account of hail damage. This concerns mainly the early grapes such a Pinot Noir and Pinot Blanc. he rainy period forced us to start picking the grapes already by September 23, the earliest start we ever experienced. The quality result was satisfying with about 60% being QbA wines, 30% in the category of KABINETT quality and 10% of SPÄTLESE quality.
The RHEINGAU´wine estate KAUFMANN, formerly HANS LANG ( VDP) reports...
...that the entire year 2017 was a challenge in any respect. Considerable damage caused by early frost and later by hail in - until now - unknown dimensions as well as rain just in the beginning of the harvest forced us to hand-select all our grapes with the final result that we had a loss of 50% compared to a normal harvest. However we can at least report that the remaining quantity will be excellent what the quality is being concerned.
Our partner in the region of the HESSISCHE BERGSTRASSE, the BERGSTRAESSER WINZER reported...
....10% less yield compared to last year with 68 hectoliters per hectar. 60% of the wines will be in the category of QbA wines and 40% can be offered as " Prädikat " wines' with an everage score of 84,2 Oechsle ( sugar reading ). We shall try to keep our prices stable for this year.
THE VINTAGE report 2016
Summary reports of the MO-RHE-NA Group
The MOSEL wine estate ULRICH LANGGUTH reports:
Frost seemed to be kind to us this year and the budding was early enough that we could look at the vineyards with great hope in April and beginning of May. However, this is what we are facing each year: the unforeseen weather periods which an cause serious damages at times. Weather seems to be less and less predictable due to the changing environment.
By end of May/ beginning of June the blossoming period had just started when constant rainfall came in between. MILDEW became the big threat for those producers like us who cultivate grapes in steep sites which can only be sprayed by hand.The helicopter flies only every 2 weeks and that proved not to be sufficient. Unlike those producers who could rive with their tractors through their wide, flat vineyards we were forced to wait for a dry period to spray against mildew and peronospera.
By the end of the flowering period we could guess that we were facing a loss but we did not estimate the considerable percentage until we started harvesting. Some producers on the Mosel report a loss of up to 80%. Our estate got away with a loss of 40% which is severe enough when you have invested labour costs before.
However, we could not complain about the quality of our grapes. The sugar reading allowed us to produce from top QbA qualities up to excellent Auslese wines and we estimate the quality of the 2016 will only be short of the 2015 results. What seemed at first to be quite a problem turned to our advantage. Mildew reduced the crop so that the rest of the grapes are more concentrated with more intense flavor.
The MOSEL wine estate LOSEN-BOCKSTANZ reports:
Due to the fact that we can spray most of our vineyards by tractors we were fortunate to avoid heavy frost by mildew and peronospera. We startedharvesting our “Burgundy” grapes by October 5 and faced a shortage in yield of Dornfelder grapes and as well as Pinot Noir. We were, however very satisfied with Riesling harvest and the Oechsle results varied between 70° (QbA) and 100° (Auslese) quality. The acidity was mature and will be a great balance for our 2016 wines.
The PFALZ wine estate ANSELMANN reports:
Whilst the year 2015 proved to be too dry with insufficient rainfall during many months, the year 2016 was almost the opposite. Rainfall was more than abundant in May almost daily and continued in June during the flowering period. This had to result in lower yields. Eventually parts of July, the month of August right into September turned to be warm and sunny. The must showed not only satisfying sugar reading but the acidity fell to a limit which would serve as harmony in almost all our wines. The colour of our red wines left nothing to be desired . The Sauvignon Blanc and Cabernet wines show an intensity of aromas.
Our Riesling wines show convincing finesse. We even produced a great Ortega Beerenauslese.
Much to our delight temperatures fell on January 6 and 7, 2017 under -10° C which allowed us to produce Eiswein (icewine) from the grape varietals Riesling, Silvaner and Pinot Noir. Thanks to the dry weather during the4 weeks before the grapes had kept in good condition and we can report that the quality will be excellent.We are looking forward to supplying you with another top vintage.
Where and when can you meet Patrick Ulrich Langguth next?
Should you visit PROWEIN, pls. visit him in Hall 14 at our booth E 95
The show lasts only for 3 days.
Due to the shortage of time it is vital to reserve day and time for a meeting in advance. (info@mo-rhe-na.com)