Vintage 2018. Hot and cold. (25.09.2018)

 

In 2018 we started 10 day earlie than usual to pick grapes when they had reached the optimum ripeness. In the first week we had still 30 degress Celsius. Picking grapes is had physical work, uncounted drops of sweat felt to to the ground, we drank uncounted bottles of water.
On day no. 6, the first fall storms came up and broguth thunderstorms that were unusual even for our region in the south-west of Germany. We were lucky and had no damage in the vineyards. Temperature dropped down to normal level and we coninued the harvest at a moderate temperature. Actually, end of September we woke up one morning and had only 4 degrees celsius. The Oechsle scale for 2018 was great. The crop was extremly good in fields with good humidity conditions. However we only got little quantity in fields were we had a lack of water during summer time.

 

 

 

 

 

2018. Summer. Heat and Drought. (24.09.2018)

 

Sonnenbrand auf Weinblatt  

2018 again had a very hot summer. We had no preciptation between May 10th and September 23rd. The few little rain drops that came down were not worth to be mentioned.

Vine roots go deep into the soil, so roots of a certain age survived well heat and drought. Younger roots however showed clear  symptoms of heat. Grapes would dry out to “raisins”. Yellow leaves testified the enormous lack of water, and, brown stains were due to sun burn. The soil showed cracks as large as a human arm and as deep that an elbow would almost disappear.

 

 

 

 

 

2018. July. First own Wine. First Gold Medal. (21.07.2018)

 

Justus erster Wein

Justus presents not just a new type of Scheurebe, he also created his own wine label.

   Justus Bernhard presented himself first in July 2018. He gave us a little report on the making of his first own wine. In Januar 2017, he started to cultivate a vineyard with Scheurebe grape with the appellation Hackenheimer Kirchberg. He was completely free in developing his ideas in the field and in the cellar. The outcome was a dry Scheurebe. This dry, aromatic wine lined up extremely well in the portfolio. It was an outstanding wine, no wonder that it was awarded with a Golden Medal by the chamber of agriculture and viniculture of Rhineland Palatinate – Germany’s wine region no. 1. Since then, Justus’ Scheurebe perfectly defends its position in our portfolio.

 

 

 

 

 

2017. Summer. Making of a vintner video. (21.08.2017)

 

Wine merchants love wine, and, share their passion with wine growers. Our merchants from  Wacky Wines (http://www.wackywines.com/) in the Netherlands have made a great video showing our winery in action.

Link to the YouTube Video about Ch.W. Bernhard Estate

 

 

 

 

 

2017. Spring, Cutting. (21.03.2017)

 

 

In early spring, vines have to be cut back.

In 2017, with the first sunshine Hartmut and Vincent assisted Justus Bernhard cutting his Scheurebe vineyard.