Indian summer has German winegrowers smiling

Publisert 28. september 2016 | Oppdatert 28. september 2016
Skjermbilde 2016-09-28 14

09/20/2016 

As the main harvest gets underway, growers in Germany´s wine regions are looking forward to a good quality vintage in 2016. Thanks to the excellent late summer weather, grape ripening has improved enormously in the past few weeks. The forecasted dry autumn weather is currently allowing a relaxed picking of the different varieties at optimal grape maturity.

 

 

The main harvest kicked off over the last few days in most wine regions with early-ripening varieties such as Mueller-Thurgau and Dornfelder and will continue with the Pinot varieties. 

Harvesting of the later-ripening Riesling will probably stretch until the end of October, weather conditions permitting. A long ripening period with warm days and cool nights promotes the development of aromas in the grapes, resulting in the fruit-driven wines typical for Germany.

As the German Wine Institute (DWI) announced, harvest volumes will be slightly lower this year due to the extremely wet weather in early summer, which resulted in lower yields from downy mildew. According to current estimates, the DWI expects a total harvest volume nationwide of approx. 8.6 million hectolitres – albeit with very large deviations from the mean depending on region and individual estate. This year´s crop would then lie 5% below the ten-year average and 4% behind last year´s totals.

Wine Must Harvest Estimates from 20 September 2016

Source: German Wine Institute (DWI) on figures supplied by the German Winegrower´s Association (DWV) 

Wine Growing

20.09.2016

10-year mean

2015

Change2016/2015

Change 2016/Long-term mean

Region

hectolitres

hectolitres

hectolitres

%

%

Ahr

                 41.000    

                  40.000    

            39.000    

Mittelrhein

                 27.000    

                  30.000    

            29.000    

-7 

-10 

Mosel

              685.000    

                809.000    

         760.000    

-10 

-15 

Nahe

              250.000    

                331.000    

         314.000    

-20 

-24 

Rheinhessen

           2.300.000    

            2.563.000    

      2.495.000    

-8 

-10 

Pfalz

           2.150.000    

            2.221.000    

      2.267.000    

-5 

-3 

Rheingau

              200.000    

                222.000    

         202.000    

-1 

-10 

Hess. Bergstraße

                 29.000    

                  30.000    

            31.000    

-6 

-3 

Franken

              490.000    

                446.000    

         420.000    

17 

10 

Wuerttemberg

           1.100.000    

            1.069.000    

      1.078.000    

Baden

           1.200.000    

            1.224.000    

      1.159.000    

-2 

Saale-Unstrut

                 55.000    

                  43.000    

            53.000    

28 

Sachsen

                 25.000    

                  20.000    

            25.000    

25 

TOTAL

           8.552.000    

            9.048.000    

      8.873.000    

-4 

-5 

 

 
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