Separating the wheat from the chaff – 2006 harvest

Whatever the reports about spring and summer 2006 were about – spring only started on the opening day of the Soccer World Championship on June 9^th, temperatures dropped rarely below 30°C for the entire month of July, August was very cold and wet -, all important decisions about the 2006 harvest were taken in September and October. Please read our extensive harvest report online. Until October 3^rd, the odds were on us for yet another very good and easy vintage. 36 hours of heavy rain destroyed this expectation and caused a very difficult, labour intensive and costly harvest. Thorough selection of healthy grapes by hand rather than mechanical harvesting was required to obtain only ripe and healthy grapes as a foundation for extraordinary wines. Within only a couple of weeks we harvested most of our grapes and finished the harvest on October 18^th – more than three weeks earlier than usual. Only Gewürztraminer grapes remained on the vine for another three weeks and were harvested on November 8^th/9^th at 205° Oe. (48,6° Brix) for Trockenbeerenauslese and 140° Oe. (34,1° Brix) for Beerenauslese. Despite all difficulties, we are delighted about the qualities that currently ripen in our cellars. At this early stage already, we consider 2006 to be amongst the most successful vintages at Louis Guntrum throughout the last ten years.