VINTAGE REPORTS
Vintage report 2011
The year 2011 had quite a few surprises in store for us here at St Urbans-Hof, several of which made us hold our breath.
April started off unusually warm, so warm in fact, that it felt like going from a cold winter straight into summer. Because of high temperatures the vines started to develop shoots a full month earlier than what we consider normal. By May shoot growth had progressed at such dazzling speed that we were almost able to tie them to the trelis system. But all of a sudden, during an intense nigh frost, temperatures dropped below -2ºC in many of Germany’s wine regions. You would be forgiven for thinking that this frost would have caused irreparable damage to the young shoots, however, the Mosel’s very special macroclimate, already acknowledged by the Romans, safeguarded it from the destructive cold. Except for a few recently planted vineyards on lower slopes the Mosel came through the frost relatively unscathed, and St Urbans-Hof not affected at all.
Equally quick as shootgrowth was pollination and fruitset, which, thanks to dry and warm climatic conditions, was regular, and it set expectations for a generous vintage. This was followed by a summer of which many complained was too cool, but nevertheless provided perfect conditions for the Riesling grape to thrive: warm but not too hot weather, with the occasional shower preventing heat stress.
This picture perfect weather pattern guaranteed a very regular growing cycle for the vines, and one that made us cross our fingers tightly. And we needed to keep our fingers crossed because in August the Mosel region was struck by devastating hail. However, as luck would have it, our vineyards remained mostly unaffected, with our holdings in the Saar not getting any hail at all.
As we were nearing the end of the season our grapes started to turn into a beautiful golden yellow, but we resisted the urge to harvest, as we realised how enormous the potential of the material was. We decided to take the gamble and leave the grapes on the vine to ripen further for as long as the weather would permit us. And we were blessed with a warm and practically completely dry and sunny October, which gave us perfectly ripe grapes with high sugar levels and good quantities we were wishing for after the very small 2010 vintage.
St Urban, patron saint of vintners, blessed us with not one but two TBA of 270º Oechsle, the highest we have ever achieved at St Urbans-Hof. Additionally to these exceptional noble sweet wines, we produced several intense, and elegant dry single vineyard Rieslings as well as succulent, fruitdriven and elegant Kabinett and Spatlese. 2011 has turned out to be an exceptional year for St Urban-Hof.
