Sonnenmulde News

Donauriesling, a new grape variety

Sun, 15 Mar 2020 00:03:00 +0100

There are some news at the Sonnenmulde winery. We have planted an all new grape variety from which the first bottles can finally be tasted. We proudly present our Donauriesling 2019, a new wine, new label, but still just as much careful craftsmanship.

Donauriesling is a novel, fungus-resistant Riesling Crossbreed, and thus belongs to the so-called PIWI vines. It promises to combine the outstanding quality of Riesling with particularly robust growing characteristics.

In the time since planting, we have been able to gain some impressions of the new vine and it certainly lives up to its promises. Comparative tastings with Riesling show many similarities with fine differences. At blind tastings, however, it has already happened to us that after a while we no longer knew which wine was in which glass. We think that this is quite extraordinary!

In cultivation we could reduce the effort for plant protection by a groundbreaking 75%. For us as an organic farm, this is particularly good news and also the reason why we are involved in the cultivation of PIWI grape varieties at all. We only use natural products for plant protection anyway, but even these cost money and organic plant protection schemes always require more manual work. Donauriesling can simplify organic cultivation and that is good news.

We also experimented with new ideas for the label of the Donauriesling. We have just recently received the first drafts from Simon Wieser at zeichnerei.at and are very enthusiastic. Now we’ll have a good look at them for this season, maybe other wines will also be given a new design next year.

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Fairs and delivieries, current state

Sat, 14 Mar 2020 09:30:00 +0100

It remains exciting. Every day offers new surprises and upsets our plans. Well, that's the same for us as for everyone else in Europe, and we'll get along just as well.

Our recently announced participation at the Tyrolean Wine Fair is of course cancelled. Nevertheless we will come to deliver or wines to Tyrol as soon as possible! Whether it will really be in the week after the 23rd of March we honestly cannot say yet.

If you have already ordered something, we will keep you informed by phone when we will come by. If you need our wines for a celebration or at a specific date before our delivery tour, we will gladly send them by parcel post. The delivery services will continue to work as it looks like at the moment.

A little further in the future lies the "SCHAU" in Dornbirn. This fair has also been postponed, but we don't know anything more precise yet. Of course, we will also deliver to Vorarlberg in April. The same applies here as for Tyrol.

We are of course happy to receive orders, even if this time tasting is not possible for many of you. Our wines are of course still as good as before the Corona virus crisis, and 2019 was a very good vintage anyway.

Take care of yourself, stay healthy and maybe you can spend some more pleasant time at home with a good glass of wine. We do the same!

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We're at the Innsbruck Wine Fair

Mon, 09 Mar 2020 08:53:00 +0100

The Innsbruck Spring Fair has been at least postponed because of the Corona Virus outbreak. We're instead coming to the Wine Fair that will be held one week later and bring our wines for a fine tasting.

Due to our recent registration, we will not be on the printed event's map. Our stand can be found under the number 608 and its location is shown below:

Our delivery plans are unchanged. We'll come to Tirol in the week following the 23rd of March and will bring your wines as ordered.

We would be happy to meet you at the fair. If that is not convinient for you, you may of course always order directly from us. And because everything is a bit cumbersome this year, we're offering 10 % off for all our customers in Tirol that order before March 22nd. Stay healthy and see you soon!

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Corona Virus - Cancellation of Exhibitions

Fri, 06 Mar 2020 09:00:00 +0100

Whoa! ProWein 2020 has finally been cancelled and the Innsbruck Spring fair at least postponed. We're thinking about other options for tastings right now. Wine orders are of course possible as always. Transportation still works and we're also on track four our upcoming personal deliviery tours eg. to Tirol.

Stay tuned, there will be updates soon!

ProWein postponed

Tue, 03 Mar 2020 07:00:00 +0100

Due to the Coronavirus epedemy this year's ProWein been postponed for a yet unknown timespan. We'll keep you updated about its eventual new date - stay tuned!

The Innsbruck Spring fair that will be held a bit earlier ist still on track and we're planning to attend as every year.

Millésime Bio - Gold

Sat, 01 Feb 2020 12:57:00 +0100

Our Blaufränkisch Rosé 2019 was awarded a Gold Medal. But this was not any award but the grand Challenge Millésime Bio in Montpellier in southern France.

The Millésime Bio that is beeing held since 1993 is the most important organic wines fair in the world. Exhibitors and visitors from all places that have anything to do with wine gather in Montpellier every February to meet, taste and to see whats new in the organic wine scene.

Organic wines have been out of their niche for a long time already in Austria and therefore a sizeable group of Austrian producers makes its way to Montpellier every year. We’re also always happy to participate and bring some great bottles with us.

The fair also presents the winners of the Challenge Millésime Bio. This year more than 1600 wines competed and were assessed as well as rated by wine experts. It was a hard competition and therefore we are more than delighted that our 2019 Rosé was one of only three Austrian wines that were awarded a Gold Medal.

Doing some tasting ourselves, we too were able to make our own picture of the high quality level of all the competing wines. But excelling in the Rosé category is even more special for us since these wines are always highly revered in southern France. Generally people in France drink more Rosé than white wines. But in the Languedoc region winemakers are especially proud of this light and refreshing wine style, compared to the much more widespread heavy reds.

We are satisfied and our Rosé has always been a great wine for the upcoming warm season anyway.

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Vineyard clearing

Sat, 23 Nov 2019 12:52:00 +0100

The last way in the life of a vineyard, the clearing. Well-tended vineyards can last for 30 to 50 years. But the older they get, the more care they need. Yields drop and more and more vines have to be replanted. In the course of decades, grape varieties also change and even cultivation methods are subject to constant modernisation. At some point it is time to grub up and replant.

Since the vines are cleared anyway, it is no longer necessary to treat them very gently. Immediately after the harvest, all shoots and leaves are cut off. Then the supporting trellis is removed. The old wire is wound up and disposed of as scrap metal. Metal uprights and sticks can be reused for a new planting if they are in good condition. However, they must still be cleared away and stored so that the field can be properly prepared. Wooden uprights and sticks cannot be reused, but when cut they provide good heating material for the winter.

At the end there are only the stems left. They are cut off at the bottom and brought home as heating material. The roots are then ploughed out and brought out of the vineyard too. They can be used for heating in the form of wood chips. Finally, the field is ploughed deeply and can freeze out in winter. If necessary, it can also be left fallow for a year or two for recreation. However, the modest vines do not burden the soil very much anyway, and we additionally help it by always working with a species-rich green manure. We can therefore replant in spring already. This time it will be Zweigelt, which fits very well to the location. In a few years the young Zweigelt vines will replace an old vineyard, which can then be cleared. And so it goes on and on.

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The Harvest 2019

Mon, 07 Oct 2019 19:00:00 +0200

Time flies and all work comes to an end. It’s like we just started, but the harvest is already done and with it the 2019 wine year lies behind us. Now we can for the first time really make some substantial statements about the vintage’s qualities. In short, we’re very pleased!

Compared to last year’s rich harvest the yield was much lower this year but still good enough. In return, grapes of all varieties developed exceptionelly well, reaching not only high sugar contents but also their full aromatic maturity. That bodes well for the young wines that are now developing in our cellar.

The white wine harvest has been finished a while ago and all have completed their fermentation in our cellar. Now the yeast settles slowly, clarifying the wines more and more every day. Apart from some specialities like our Pinot Blanc Barrique that is. This wine ferments in the small barrels seen on the picture and is stirred up after fermentation regularily for a few more months. This leads to the development of full, soft and complex flavours that are much appreciated for this style of wine.

Red wines are usually harvested later than whites. Then the grapes are sweeter, leading to richer and darker wines with lots of character. However all of them have been harvested too by now, just not all are done fermenting yet. Typicly we pick Cabernet Sauvignon last and that was again true this year. Earlier grapes like St. Laurent and even our Zweigelt have been harvested much earlier and are by now not only done fermenting, but also pressed (see Photo) and filled into their casks for further ageing.

In contrast to young whites, sampling young red wines is a difficult task. Right now they are just not fun to taste, overly bitter, unharmonic and hard on the palate. But we are still looking forward to an exceptional vintage. After some ageing of course!

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Sonnenmulde organic table-grapes

Mon, 02 Sep 2019 23:00:00 +0200

The proper wine harvest will start immediately after the Dornbirn Autumn fair in mid September. But we're already picking some grapes right now. They are just not destined for winemaking, rather they are table grapes meant for eating. Even more special is that they are new, fungus-resistant varieties that practically require no spraying - not even with organic formulations. This saves us a lot of time and labour while the grapes are still crisp and beautiful to look at.

Below some pictures from the harvest. Since we do not grow huge amounts, we can do using the small gear.

Freshly picked and packed soon thereafter the grapes are available in selected BILLA and Merkur stores in Austria the very next day. Be quick, next week they will be gone already!

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Yield management

Wed, 24 Jul 2019 16:55:00 +0200

Yield management is a key factor in making great wines. The most important decisions are already made during winter pruning. But now, with the harvest in sight, it is time for some fine-tuning. Depending on the grape variety, there is more or less to do. But thinning the yield to a level that will help us harvest grapes with the ripeness we need, is what really counts.

The Images show Zweigelt grapes before and after thinning. Zweigelt profits exceptionally from reducing the yield, altough this example might be a bit radical. But these grapes are intended for our premium barrique wine, Capella. Only the best, free hanging grapes are kept and only one per shoot is allowed. This is a prerequisit for a full bodied, dark coloured and expressive red wine and Capella should be just that.

Thinning is the last “green-work” to do in the vineyard before the harvest. In August the grapes just ripen and we prepare for the harvest. We might even have a few days off before the busiest season starts. At the moment it is hot and dry, the grapes develop and we’re on a good path. Let’s see how 2019 turns out!

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