Staufen (dpa / lsw) – The winegrowers in Baden are preparing for a good quality wine. If the weather conditions remain stable, the yields should also be good, said the managing director of the Baden Winegrowers’ Association, Holger Klein. The announced lower temperatures towards the weekend are not a problem. It shouldn’t get too wet. “We don’t need hail either.”
According to Klein, however, it is still too early to make a correct forecast for the 2023 vintage, as the harvest will not begin for a few weeks. “The vintage is just developing.” A lot could still happen there.
These days, however, grapes are already being collected for Federweißer as a harbinger of the vintage, so to speak – for example at the Wolfgang and Andreas Löffler winery in Staufen im Breisgau (Breisgau-Hochschwarzwald district). The people of Württemberg expect the Federweißer to start harvesting at the beginning of September.
In terms of wine law, Federweißer is not wine, but “partially fermented grape must”. The wine law contains, among other things, rules on distillation and controls as well as the recognition of vineyards suitable for quality wine and predicate wine.
The German Wine Institute advises: “Ideally, one drinks Federweißer halfway from grape juice to wine, when sweetness, alcohol and fruit acidity are in good balance.” Then it has an alcohol content of about five percent by volume.
After a comparatively dry early summer, the heavy rain in July was good for the vines, said Klein. But it was just as important that it got dry again. Otherwise there would have been a risk of fungal diseases, the expert explained.
According to the State Statistical Office, wine was grown on more than 27,000 hectares in Baden-Württemberg last year. With a share of 50.2 percent, white grape varieties predominated for the first time in 20 years. There are regional differences: while white grape varieties dominate in Baden, in Württemberg it is red. Since 2008, however, the red grape varieties have decreased in both growing areas and the white ones have increased.
© dpa-infocom, dpa:230822-99-913992/3
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