Vintage 2023

Activities in the Badacsony region was managed very successful by our site manager Zsolt Palkó and the Hungarian team around him.

The weather

To put it short - the weather 2023, see the temperatures and precipitation diagram below (click on the picture to enlarge it).

At Villa Sandahl, we are very careful to harvest ripe grapes, see the below autumn precipitation picture (click on the picture to enlarge it).

Grape measurements

			2023-09-20	2023-10-03	2023-10-09
	Bishop Backyard East	Sugar g/l	192,00	204,00	198,90
		Pot. Alcohol (%)	11,30	12,01	11,75
		Total acid (g/l)	6,5	6,0	6,0
	Bishop Backyard West	Sugar g/l	210,00	206,00	201,50
		Pot. Alcohol (%)	12,38	12,15	11,86
		Total acid (g/l)	6,7	6,5	5,9
	Solitude	Sugar g/l	208,70	205,00	206,50
		Pot. Alcohol (%)	12,30	12,10	12,15
		Total acid (g/l)	6,8	6,5	6,1
	Genezis Low	Sugar g/l	193,50	203,00	206,00
		Pot. Alcohol (%)	11,41	11,93	12,15
		Total acid (g/l)	6,5	5,9	5,5
	Genezis Grafts East	Sugar g/l		196,91	217,00
		Pot. Alcohol (%)		11,64	12,83
		Total acid (g/l)		6,5	6,2
	Genezis Grafts West	Sugar g/l		206,00	203,75
		Pot. Alcohol (%)		12,15	12,01
		Total acid (g/l)		6,4	6,0
	Genezis High	Sugar g/l		216,63	207,81
		Pot. Alcohol (%)		12,75	12,23
		Total acid (g/l)		6,4	5,8
	Earl ridge Young plants	Sugar g/l	206,00
		Pot. Alcohol (%)	12,15
		Total acid (g/l)	6,5

Harvest and pressing

As can be seen in the picture, it was rather frustrating to wait harvesting during long times of good weather, because the grapes had not reached the ripening expected at Villa Sandahl. Ripe grapes is one of the most awarding quality factors, if you want to produce soft and rich Riesling.

The periods in the figure and corresponding activities are:

1. In this period the Riesling grapes was not ripened enough.
2. We decided to start harvesting Tuesday the 10th of October, because the weather forecast told us no rain that day. Unfortunately the rain came after some hour, and we had to call off the harvest, and resume on Wednesday.

• Tuesday morning we managed to harvest 53 boxes of non-botrytized grapes from Genesis west before the rain.
  

3. From Wednesday the 11th to Saturday the 14th of September, just before the approaching rain, we manage to pick all remaining grapes. Unfortunately the mildew had reduced the harvest to become only 2/3 of normal, which now happened to be a bit easier to grasp.

• Wednesday the 11th we harvested 147 boxes of non-botrytized grapes from the remaining of Genesis.
• Thursday morning the 12th we pressed above 53 + 147 boxes from Genesis into tank 1 and 2.
• Thursday the 12th we also harvested around 80 boxes non-botrytized grapes from Genesis low.
• Friday the 13th we harvested around 80 boxes non-botrytized grapes from Bishop Backyard and Solitude.
• Saturday morning the 14th we pressed the 80 + 80 boxes harvested above into tanks 3 and 4.
• Saturday the 14th we finally harvested superior botrytized grapes from a second harvest round in Genesis.
• Saturday evening the 14th we pressed the second round above from Genesis into tank 5 and 6.
• As usual, all our 3rd fractions were gathered during the whole pressing process into tank 7.

 

Fermentation

The 2023 vintage were easy to ferment, and the speed was easy to keep ideal during the whole process.

	Tank number	Yest inoculation	Fermentation stopped	Fermentation duration days
	1	2023-10-20	2024-02-08	111
	2	2023-10-20	2024-02-05	108
	3	2023-10-20	2024-01-16	88
	4	2023-10-20	2024-02-05	108
	5	2023-10-20	2024-02-09	112
	6	2023-10-20	2024-02-13	116
	7	2023-10-20	2024-02-05	108

 

Breaking fermentation

As usual we were breaking the fermentation at around 6 gram per liter residual sugar. We believe this is the right level of sweetness for a ripe Riesling.

Assembling the portfolio

Grade	Tank
Rare peak plus	3
Rare peak plain	4
Mid range	1 + 5
Solid ground	2 + 6 + 7

 

Bottling

Ongoing

 

Wine information

 

Label theme

 

Labels