This vintage was the first one where we experienced frost, and it was all the more unpleasant. There were two nights in a row (April 24-25) of temperatures hovering around -2, which annihilated all the growth that was already happening in the vineyards.

Franken has always been a region that is frost-sensitive, because of its deeply continental climate. The winters are cold and the summers are hot. However, climate change has made the shoulder seasons more unpredictable, with a start of spring that can range from very early to very late. In 2024, we were pruning in a sweatshirt in February, so we knew it was going to be a dangerous one.

Driving through the vineyards after a frost is heartbreaking. What was lush and green and full of hope has turned brown and dried, like a metaphor of our financial health following this damage. But vines are resilient, and never accept defeat. Growth started to return after around two weeks, and we knew right then that the next few months would be a sprint against the clock. Because of the hard frost, the plants restructured their energy into fast and relentless growth. A wet season turned things into even more madness; our usually water-stressed vines felt like they were in a Natasha Bedingfield videoclip dancing under the pouring rain, living their best life.

Some vineyards recovered better than others and made a respectable amount of fruit. Others grew only a scary amount of leaves and told us to be patient until next season. All in all we lost about 40% of our production, due to the combined evil work of frost and high pressure from fungal disease.

The wines of 2024 are linear, clear-viewed, and a little bit magical. The result of a season that made us beg for mercy. These wines will be released somewhere in the early summer of 2026.

Finally, a summer that felt normal, if that is even a thing nowadays! The season of 2023 was easier to digest, and was a welcome sigh after two high voltage vintages. Growing vines will never be a chill activity, but at least this time, with a bit more experience in our new home terroir under our belt, we could make enlightened decisions, and work in a timely matter during the vegetative season. It was warm also in 2023, but less extreme than the previous year, and some well-timed rain in August helped the grapes reach the finish line.

2023 also marks the first year where Sinead, our first and only full-time employee, which made things a lot smoother. An extra brain and two extra hands in our team, what a luxury!

In the cellar, we have said it in numerous places, this vintage is where we found our style. We learned from our mistakes, doubled down on what had worked the previous years, and made a small line-up of wines that are speaking eloquently about the time, the place and the people who made them. This vintage is currently on the market, and is also available in our online shop.

The summer of 2022 was scorching, to say the least. In stark contrast with the preceding wet vintage, it did not rain for months.

On top of that, temperatures reached up to 37°C at least four times during the summer. These intense heat waves put the vines under severe hydric stress. Their growth slowed down, they showed visible signs of plant anxiety. Some of our grapes were burnt by the sun, especially the very fragile Bacchus.

We dove into harvest knowing it would be a complicated puzzle in the cellar. When the vines are thirsty, the ability to absorb nutrients is diminished, which has an effect on a healthy fermentation. We macerated some of our white grapes a bit longer to extract every little bit of goodness we could from the skins, and hoped for the best. Everything made it to the finish line, except one tank, which we don’t talk about.

The wines from vintage 2022 are full of solar power, broad and ripe (for Franconia). They have a nice fine structure from the maceration, and a mouthful of juicy summer fruits. Find them on our online shop.

Before we moved to Franken, many people warned us about the heat. The eternal summer sunshine, the lack of rainfall, the dangers and complications due to water stress.

Then we arrived and it rained every single day from mid-April to September. Oh well. Needless to say, we were a bit confused.

As we watched the mean brothers Mildew and Oidium move into the vineyards with no intention of receding, it felt like every decision we made throughout the summer was wrong. With the benefit of hindsight, we can see that 2021 was a notoriously difficult vintage throughout Germany as a whole, and that we were not alone. Winemakers with a whole lot more experience than us shared traumatic stories from 2014, which was another one of these rainy, wet and desperate years. We made it through our first summer in Hüttenheim through gritted teeth and a question mark in the eye: was this IT?

Nevertheless, and thanks to our incredible, reliable, vigorous PIWI vineyards, we harvested some fruit; a small amount of grapes with crispy acidity, the kind that forces you to smile when it hits you in the inner cheek. We did our best to make wines that would certainly reflect the complications of the vintage, but would remain fun to drink and easy to love. A lot of you still talk about our white Passion Poulet, which is unfortunately sold out, but encapsulated this energy perfectly: high acidity, high vibration, high pleasure factor!