Turbo-Harvest with Good Quality - Vintage 2023 in the German Winegrowing Regions
The 2023 wine year will go down in history as one of the fastest harvests on record. Capricious weather brought extreme drought, which was followed by weeks of heavy rainfall that culminated in an extremely warm late summer.
Most grape varieties ripened almost simultaneously. With September temperatures of up to 30 degrees, the winegrowers collected their grapes in the cool night and morning hours so that the must did not end up overheated in the vats.
The main challenge of the year was to bring in healthy grapes. In many places, diligent pre-selection was done in the vineyards, which on the one hand reduced the quantities, but on the other hand also ensured a good to exceptional quality overall. In addition to Riesling and Silvaner, the winners of the vintage also include the international red wine varieties and the new fungus-resistant grape varieties, which were able to demonstrate their high resistance to fungal pathogens particularly well this year. The first young wines of 2023 are already very fruit-driven, pleasantly lean, and with a fine acidity.
The yields this year varied widely depending on the grape variety and rainfall distribution, both regionally and across individual sites. At an estimated 8.8 million hectolitres, the nationwide harvest volume is on a par with the long-term average and three per cent below the previous year's result.
The German Wine Institute (DWI) found out how the 2023 wine vintage developed in the 13 growing regions.
The annual report for all areas is available for download as a PDF (see below).
Additional information
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Turbo-Harvest with Good Quality - Vintage 2023 PDF 196 KB
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PDF 194 KB
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Contact persons
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Ernst Büscher
Pressesprecher / Press officer