Spring Makes Me Nervous
Let me begin by welcoming a two dozen new subscribers from the Substack platform. I co-authored an article about the pop-up wine bar in Paris this past February and not only did it generate positive feedback and several inquiries from bachelor students and importers, it also added some subscribers to my winery newsletter. Herzlich willkommen und vielen Dank. 🥳
The details about the pop-up can be read in detail here, but in brief, we hosted 518 guests in 28 days. The success of the pop-up convinced Jeff Hargrove, the owner of Fringe, where we hosted the pop-up, to open a natural wine bar on Friday and Saturday evenings. Fringe will pair Austrian wines with Korean rice cakes called tteok. It’s certainly unique and I can’t wait to try the combination when I return to Fringe for one week to pour Austrian wines from 7-11 April as part of an Austrian Tourismpromotion in Paris. So if you are in Paris, please stop in an say, “bonjour”. The wine is free and I will be there every evening from 18-22hr.
Professor Chris?
After living in Paris for 6 weeks I returned back to Vienna to begin my new teaching job at the University of Applied Sciences in Krems. I complained so much, err, gave constructive feedback, that I was asked to fix was I thought was wrong.
The class of 31 students are doing real marketing projects for small wineries in the region, an idea I stole from my college back in the 90s.
My first class was on 24 March and I could barely sleep the night before. I was super nervous right up until class was over and three students came up to me telling me that they already know this is going to be their favorite class, which was gratifying to hear.
Back in the Vineyards
After last years late frost in May where temperatures dropped to -2C (28.4F) killing all of the early buds I am delaying my pruning until mid-April.
Vine plants love to climb so all of their energy goes straight to the apex or the tip of each cane. A cane can have 20 buds on it, which are normally pruned down to less than half, depending on the vigor, variety and age of the vine. But when cutting off the extra buds you risk that those remaining ones die from a late frost. By waiting, if buds #9-12 die I can rely on bud #4 to burst and produce grapes. If I prune now I lose that option. Of course this isn’t possible if you own a large vineyard, but since I am small I can easily prune everything in 2-3 days.
For the 2025 vintage I am also expanding. A local winery about 2 kilometers from Kremsleithen has six rows of old organic Riesling they are renting to me. The small plot is called Ried or vineyard Weinzierlberg, which is a premier cru site, known in Austria as 1.ÖTW or Erste Lage.
They’ve already been pruned, so my next step is to bind the canes to the trellis and hope we don’t get another late frost. So now you can see why spring makes me nervous.
Pre-Allocation for the 2024 Vintage
Nearly 50% of the 2024 vintage is already allocated. So if you want to get on the list just click below and fill in the “Notify Me” button with your email address and I’ll add you (nothing to pay). Both bottles will be 20 EUR, USD or CHF per 500 ml bottle, not including shipping.
Prost!
