Around seven weeks after the start of the grape harvest, most of the harvest for the 2022 wine is in the barrel. “Some of the Riesling grapes are still hanging on the vines, as are red wine varieties such as Merlot and Cabernet – but otherwise everything is through,” said the President of the Wine-growing association in the largest German wine-growing region, Rheinhessen, Ingo Steitz.
Further south, the harvest is sometimes completely over. “We’ve been finished since September 29,” said the managing director of the Weinbiet Manufaktur wine cooperative in Neustadt an der Weinstrasse, Bastian Klohr. “It went in no time. We started early and then accelerated.” The cooperative is quite satisfied with the foreseeable result so far: “The quantity has certainly remained below expectations, but the quality is very good.” This can be clearly seen in wines that have already fermented, said the winemaker.
Autumn is over for the winegrowers
According to the German Wine Institute, the harvest in other regions is now concentrated on a much shorter period than in previous decades. In the Rheingau, the harvest is also largely over, earlier than in most previous years.
“It’s amazing how quickly autumn is over now,” said the Palatinate winemaker Klohr. The winegrowers have to be prepared for the fact that the often hesitant ripening process will be completed faster if it starts earlier.
The new vintage is characterized by the long drought in July and August. “We saw big differences in the water supply in the individual regions,” said the chairman of the Association of German Prädikat Wineries (VDP) in Franconia, Robert Haller. Younger vineyards in particular suffered from the extreme drought. Vineyards with older, more deeply rooted vines, on the other hand, have remained vital.
Depending on the soil, the rain in September was often no longer able to compensate for the damage caused by drought, explained the Rhine-Hessian winegrowing president Steitz. The berries often only reached about 70 percent of their usual size. He therefore expects that the first statistical estimates of the yield will have to be corrected downwards.
The harvest is also about to end in the easternmost German wine-growing region of Saxony – about two weeks earlier than normal, as the chairman of the Saxony Winegrowers’ Association, Felix Hößelbarth, explained. “It will be a good vintage, in terms of quality and quantity.”
With the conclusion of the grape harvest, the most work-intensive time of the year ends for the winegrowers. The frequent interruptions on rainy days in September were both a curse and a blessing, according to VDP Franken. On the one hand, the working conditions were extremely difficult – “on the other hand, the rain meant that the soil was able to recover from the extreme drought of the summer”.
