Jammertal Wine Estate

We are being asked the same question on regular basis: Which is the most critical period of the winemaking? The answer is simple: winemaking is a chain of critical processes. “Ceterum censeo” … Great wine can only be made from perfect grapes. Approaching an otherwise promising vintage we need to wait patiently for the optimal ripeness of the grapes. This game more than often becomes a sort of gamble that includes the risk of failure. If - fearing a rainy spell - we pick too soon the wine will be full of green, immature tannins with all their concomitant incurable disadvantages. If we wait we may get caught by a few rainy, foggy days ( time is not measured in weeks at this stage!) that would ruin the crop. In this case all we can do is to emergency - harvest a questionable quality of grapes before they got rotten. The prices of great wines include this risk. The next challenge is the fermentation. Determining the length of cold soaking. Choosing the type of yeast for a given var...

In our days Malbec is almost a synonym of Argentine red wine. Yet most evidence suggests that the Malbec grape variety was originally known as Côt (Noir) which probably came from northern Burgundy. It should be noted that, despite the similarities in name, Malbec Argenté is not Malbec but a variety of Abouriou from south-western France. Out of less than 57,000 hectares planted with Malbec around the world Argentina boosts with 45,000 hectares ( 80 % ). Rest goes to Chile ( 5,500 hectares ) and Cahors ( 4,000 hectares ) in France. A couple of wine regions in the United States do trials with Malbec on a scale of 20 to 40 (!) hectares each. Historically Malbec belonged among those six grape varieties which were legal ingredients of Bordeaux blends. However, its presence in Bordeaux became insignificant for two reasons. The phylloxera plague in the late 19 th century almost completely destroyed it. The devastating frost of 1956 delivered the coup de grâce to the variety. Whereas the f...