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Summer 2004 in Germany appealed too many of us simply to not have happened at all. However, the grapes we have harvest throughout the first couple of weeks of October have shown great ripeness, vivid and ripe acidity levels and excellent healthiness of the grapes. Summer 2004 in Nierstein and Oppenheim has apparently been much more of a very normal and regular Central European summer. – Warm, yet not hot temperatures during the day, cool temperatures at night, and some rain on and off. A historic saying in our region goes that it takes 120 days between flowering of the grapes and harvest to make a good vintage or better. In 2004 we have had these 120 days exposing the grapes to sufficient sunshine with also balancing acidity and fruitiness by cool nights and thus developing extraordinary and very fragrant flavours and aromas.
PINOT BLANC, PINOT GRIS and PINOT NOIR grapes we harvested at around 100° Oechsle (around 24 ° brix), which shows great potential of the vintage. Riesling harvest we only started on October 25th and today, three days into the harvesting of Riesling grapes, we have achieved great results of around 95° Oechsle (around 23° brix) and we are looking forward to dry and fairly sunny weather throughout the next few days to be able to harvest more of these great Riesling juices, which rank well in the Auslese quality range. We have also started picking noble rotten berries for Riesling Beerenauslese or even Riesling Trockenbeerenauslese. It is too early for details, but we are hopeful to get a few litres of this outstanding liquid nectar. All in all we expect wines of great ripeness, delightful fruitiness and simply great fun to drink.
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Starting with the vintage 2004 Weingut Louis Guntrum has returned to an increased amount of hand-picked grapes. Obviously the quality of the grapes of the press does not differ whether the grapes were harvest by hand or mechanically. However, a selective harvest that divides thoroughly very ripe golden grapes from less ripe greener grapes and finally from rotten or noble rotten grapes can not be achieved by mechanical harvest. We have gone back to hand-picking to ensure wines of even more character and brightness. The picture shows some of our handpickers in vineyards of Weingut Louis Guntrum. |
Also for the first time we are using small vats to transport our grapes from the vineyards to the winery. We filled these vats with about 500 kg of grapes. Thus we achieve more intact grapes on the press and less juice possibly exposed to premature oxidation on the way to our estate. These vats can be covered to protect the grapes from beginning rain or from sunshine. | |
Our PINOT NOIR grapes we have obviously fermented on the skins. Prior to the fermentation we have destemmed all grapes to avoid unripe tannins and bitterness, which might have been extracted from the stems.
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Spätburgunder grapes are
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loaded onto the destemmer
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Berries and stems are separated by the destemmer
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Destemmed stems
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Destemmed Spätburgunder mash
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To achieve fruit for worth and aromatic wines and to provide even higher qualities from our vineyards at Weingut Louis Guntrum we have refined the pressing system at Weingut Louis Guntrum. The grapes are heaped up from the vats described above directly onto the press, thus we avoid unnecessary pumping of the grape mash.
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Grapes are loaded directly onto the press
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Rüdiger Steck, our cellarmaster
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Mash on the press
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Great Lord, we praise thee*
November 3rd 2004, after 29 days harvesting, we gathered the last grapes from our Niersteiner Hipping and took them home. Nature granted us again with a great vintage. Specially the Rieslings, which we gathered in the last days of October, but also the other grape varieties proved the quality of vintage 2004. Specific weight of must between 90° and 100° Oechsle and convincing high acid content let us expect a classic and long lasting wine.
Concluding the vintage 2004 shows itself satisfying and fills us with gratitude to nature.
*Always sung at the end of harvesting by the pickers, staff, and proprietor.
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