Schäfer-Fröhlich (Nahe) -- 2014 Whites and a 2011 Spätburgunder Tasted from Bottle

Tim Fröhlich said that for 2014, you had to work well in the vineyards. He did plenty of leaf pulling in order to fend off incipient botrytis in August. In October, a few cold nights and a few days made the difference between the Grosse Gewächse and the regular estate wines. TheGGs were harvested between 10 and 15 October, a month earlier than for 2013. Alcohols for the GGs were mostly about 12.5-7º, which is about 0.7-8º less than 2012 and 2013.

Tim said that he had to do almost no sorting at the harvest, which is normal in quantity except for the Auslese, which is about half of a normal crop. He said that had he had three or four more good days, he could have made a normal crop in Auslese, too.

Although many producers only began to realize well into this year that they had good quality in 2014, Tim was one of the exceptions who was optimistic from the time of the harvest – the grapes that he brought in were that good. But in order to reach that state, he said it was necessary at harvest to decide what to take and what to leave in the vineyards. In some cases (which must have been fairly extreme since overall quantity is normal), Tim said half the grapes were left in the vineyards. (Continue reading here.)