Harvest balance 2023: Rheingau defies frost - wine counts surprises!

Harvest balance 2023: Rheingau defies frost - wine counts surprises!

The current harvest balance of the German Wine Institute makes you listen: While the vines in the Rheingau were largely spared from the late frosts in April and the harvest with an estimated 222,000 hectoliters is at the previous year's level, it looks dramatic in other German wine regions. On the Hessische Bergstrasse, the harvesting amount fell 6 percent to 31,000 hectoliters, in the Middle Rhine Valley by 14 percent to 19,000 hectoliters, and the Ahr even had to accept an alarming decline from 64 percent to 15,000 hectoliters. Saxony and Saale-Unstrut with losses of over 70 percent are particularly violent. Due to hailstorms, the slightest harvest has been expected from only 510,000 hectoliters on the Moselle.

Despite these sobering numbers, there is a ray of hope: the rainfall leads to the accumulation of valuable minerals in the grapes, which indicates the formation of extract -rich wines with pronounced minerality. These wines promise "fresh, lively flavors" and a moderate alcohol content that corresponds to the current trend. Ecovin's ecovin also report considerable loss of yield and demand that the regulations in biow installation be adjusted in order to be able to cope with their challenges by late frosts and fungal diseases. For more information about this difficult wine season, visit www.faz.net .