DELHEIM

Cheers! The 2010 Delheim Harvest Team

Delheim’s harvest is now almost over, with only the Rhine Riesling still on the vine, waiting for the necessary Botrytis to develop to make the Edelspatz Noble Late Harvest.

Initially, the ample winter cold and rain necessary for a great 2010 harvest augured well for Delheim.  Unfortunately, this optimism was not destined to last, as the long cold and wet spell then continued throughout the growing season in September and October, hampering the development of those varietals flowering at the time.  To make matters even worse, a few varietals already in full flower were threatened with downy mildew.

As if this were not enough, we then experienced uncharacteristically severe storm winds in November and December, resulting in extensive damage.  This wind was in fact so ruthless that shoots actually broke right off the cordon, resulting in an estimated loss of 50% to, in some varietals, 90% of our crop – especially devastating to us as we had initially thought that the harvest would be an exceptional one this year.  Director “Spatz” Sperling commented that this was the worst yield that he had experienced in more than 60 years of winemaking at Delheim, with an estimated 40% loss overall. Unfortunately, this shortfall in grapes is going to put severe pressure on the availability of some products. 

One consolation is that February this year was uncharacteristically moderate and cool, resulting in good quality grapes – so although small in volume, on the whole Delheim expects that the 2010 vintage is going to be a superior one.

THE DELHEIM TEAM

It has been a while since we went “back to the vine” and our little bunch of Riesling is doing well. The Botrytis fungus is doing its job diluting the grapes to get that sugar level to spike. To the naked eye it actually seems as if little raisins are forming, and technically they are, but who could have thought that such a wonderful product as the Edelspatz Noble Late Harvest could come from this!  A more technical report on the grapes will follow shortly.

As you can see, our little Riesling bunch has changed a lot over the last few weeks. Harvest season has already started, but the Riesling grapes will stay on the vines for another few weeks. We harvest the grapes at a very high sugar level and for this reason we leave them on the vines to reach optimal ripeness. To get the sugar level we need, Delheim relies on Botrytis cinerea (more on that in our next update).

Kind regards
The Delheim Team

2010 is here and what seemed like the future is suddenly the present. Looking at our little vine, I couldn’t help but feel a sense of tranquility. As you can see the fruit is slowly but surely growing and reaching veraison. Cell division takes place and suddenly, there the little bunch is hanging. After a few cold evenings things are looking to turn around with a little higher humidity during the day, so it gets very difficult to predict what is going to happen next.

All the best for 2010 from all of us at Delheim (and our little vine)

While many of us are taking a well-deserved break from the rat race today, our vines do not have that luxury. Strong winds again raced along the Simonsberg mountain. Luckily the grapes are settled and were not drastically affected by the Cape Doctor.

7 December and the Rhine Riesling grapes are growing strong and looking healthy. The crop seems similar in size for the making of Noble Late Harvest at a yield of 2.94 tonnes per hectare.

The past week has helped growth in the grapes with no further wind damage and relatively warm days. The nights are still cool and no rain is expected in the next couple of days. The vineyards are healthy and waiting for further summer pruning. Crop estimations will take place in the next week.

23 November, 8 am – today we start the journey with our Rhine Riesling vineyard from grape to vine. The vineyard is situated in the Delheim parking area and is used for the production of our noble late harvest wine Edelspatz. The grapes have just gone through flowering, and are now in a period of cellular growth. There is intense metabolic activity in the berries and chlorphyll is the predominant pigment. The canes are about one metre long and there is active growth taking place to produce new leaves. Let us hope that the south-easter winds have gone and that the continuous rain has stopped. We will keep you updated on our journey on a weekly basis.