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The wine year 2002
Dear wine friends,
We are currently in the process of bottling the vintage 2002.
It will become again a good vintage!
Even when almost all of Central Europe had to suffer almost endless precipitation in July/August, in our Terrassenmosel region we had - if at all - only isolated rainfall. While in Hamburg and in another places whole motorways were flooded, and in the Alps meadows were flushed down and rivers flooded whole regions, the first leaves withered due to dryness in our vineyards.
Only on 3rd of August the desired rain came to us. After some rainfalls, at 15.00 o'clock the sky went dark and in addition to thunder and lightning came hail across the complete area of Winningen.
Only five minutes hail were sufficient to destroy a majority of our harvest. Particularly our Spätburgunder vineyards were affected. Even though our region is certainly no hail danger-zone and the last major hailstorm is already 15 years past, the devastation was the largest that Winningen ever experienced. Although the harvest losses are very substantial and there will not be enough wine across the different taste and quality levels, the quality will be nevertheless be as high as previous years - at least this is something, too!
On the extremely steep slate terraces (Terassenmosel), we harvested optimally matured Riesling grapes in the vintages 2000 and 2001 in our Grand Cru sites of Winninger Uhlen and Winninger Röttgen. This allowed us to make unusually finesse-rich wines with crystal-clear fruit. The result: the wines capture the harmony of finest acid and juicy fruit with a broad spectrum of intensive fruit flavours.
For our untiring efforts in vineyard and cellar we received our fifth state honour prize last year (for special achievements in viticulture). This is an award which only the best 13 from over 7000 viticulture enterprises receive annually. Also in the Gault Millau and the magazine of the Feinschmecker we are ranked among the best 400 wine producers of Germany. For a purely family business these are most unusual awards, which fills us with great joy and pride.
Sunny greetings from the Terrassenmosel
Anke and Reiner Fries
P.S.: We can also offer you a selection of decorative gift packages for friends and business partners. We will be glad to advise and assist you!
Edited: 2004-10-04 15:39
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