Vintage retrospective
Torridity, rainstorm, much more work, experiment, surprise, restart... These words come to my mind when I look back to this vintage. Swallowed in the thick fog the vines fell into a deep sleep. In the silence there is a breathing space to give account of the vintage 2015.
Around the new year's eve of 2014 the days bring a hard winter with -15 Celsius, however the rough weather stays for only some days. Of course in connection with the fight against the diseases we had much more fortunate winter than after vintage 2013. Wondrously we have much more snow as well!
On the 10th of March our first almond trees burst into bloom, in these days we finish the pruning. April is calm without frost damage, in our vineyards bud burst starts on 10th of April. After the dry and sunny April in May rainy days come to be of assistance to our fresh planting.
On the first day of June a tropical, vaporous swelter breaks the pleasant weather. In the early morning the wetness are flowing from the leaves, during the day the temperature rises around 31-35 Celsius. After some day the unpleasant wetness turns to dry and hot till the beginning of August.
In July more heat wave reach us, the drought becomes to be a considerable problem. The young vines planted in May should be watered where the soil is more sandy and not able to store the water in itself. There are advantages of the drought: the grape is perfectly healthy, we have to spray only a little and at important moments and in the end of the month we finish spraying completely. In August the extremity culminates: we have a rainstorm more than 100 millimeters of rain in some hours. As it comes it goes, the water flows down from the hill fast and crushes the vineyards and causes big damages everywhere.
The persistent sizzling heat means a serious trial for the vines, the ripening and the process of gathering the sugar in the grapes stops, the acidity starts to decrease quickly. After the middle of September when the nights bring some refreshment, the vines wake up and try to make up their lagging. Then in the first part of October one week of rain shuffles the deck, the quality of the grapes, aromas and acidity fall big altogether.
Choosing a precise harvest date wasn't an easy task in this year accordingly but we observed some recognition and brand new thoughts came. Every year is different but in this year as well we could make some steps on the way of the full cognition of our vineyards.
The fermentation of our wines from the vintage 2015 with only one exception has already finished, they settle nicely and the aging has been already started in different vats. They show amazing colorful personality! I always open the cellar door with a big excitement! I have never felt so much focus, layers and clear-out in our young wines like now.
Sometimes an interesting thought appears in my head: I feel as if it is not only us who are trying to get closer to knowing our vineyards. In its own motion the vines make some silent steps towards us in every year. They say thank you for our help and attention, open out slowly and show their real personality, finesse and deepness.
/ István Bencze /
