December 2009

The harbinger of winter take their time this year. Spring-like temperatures invite to stroll through the vineyards and to enjoy the autumn to the fullest.

We finished the harvest during dry, beautiful weather conditions in October. It was a harvest full of surprises and record-breaking gradations.

We still cavort in the vineyards, the cleared acreages must be levelled. In the vineyard Sental, over the Wechselberg, a new dream site is developed. We managed to acquire six plots linked together in one of the most stunning sites of Straß. You will be surprised.

In the cellar, the musts are all fermented. Tasting it, it allows us to draw first conclusions on the 2009 quality. And it will be a great vintage!

Green and Weißer of the new vintage are already bottled. They are ready for you to be tasted!

We hope that you will be able to escape from the pre-Christmas stress and relax a bit - maybe with a nice glass of Topf wine?

I wholeheartedly wish you a Merry Christmas and all the best for the New Year. May your days be filled with joy and health and all your wishes come true!

Looking forward to seeing you at a tasting of the 2009 vintage,

yours sincerely,

Hans Topf

November 2009

The harvest has ended, but there is no winter break in sight. The cellar and the press house need to be cleaned carefully. Most important is the progress of the fermentation, which need to be overlooked regularely.

A part of our team is busy with the clearing of the newly acquired vineyards in Riede Wechselberg. A vineyard in Riede Hasel is cleared as well and prepared for the new planting in three years.

The tractor drivers distribute the selfmade compost in the vineyards. Afterwards, the vines are covered with soil (approx. 40 cm from the surface) in order to protect the vines from the cold winter months.

We can finish the harvest today. There is only the small test vineyard Wechselberg left. The University of Natural Resources and Applied Life Sciences Vienna under the direction of Dr. Helmut Redl planted numerous clones of Grüner Veltliner grapes (approx. 55 years old) on different soils. Our team and the students are busy with harvesting them. The grapes are weighed separately, the sugar is determined. The wine is vinified is small units in order to find the old, typical smaller berried clone for the Kamptal.

At 12.00 hrs we finish this years harvest. Great relief, happy faces and a reason to celebrate....

Temperatures are chilly as usual (2° C). We continue with the Grüner Veltliner Hans Topf this morning. The grapes are from older vines of the vineyards Gaisberg and Stangl. Just as we did it at the Ofenberg, the vineyards has been pre-harvested. Thus, there are beautiful Grüner Veltliner grapes of outstanding quality left. The must is fermented in the new, 2500lt-barrels of Manhartsberg oak. It is matured on full yeast for 12 months.

We are heading into the home straight: cold, dry weather, there are merely three vineyards left for the harvest, each of which with Grüner Veltliner. We start with Ofenberg today, this vineyard has already been harvested at the beginning of September. There are only a few grapes left, healthy, golden yellow, sweet and spicy with a gradation of 21° KMW. The must of Ofenberg is fermented in steel tanks.

Weather and temperatures were endurable during the harvest of Weißburgunder in Riede Stangl. Similar to the Chardonnay, the quality is excellent but the output rather small.

Our family is growing: the new family member is not a harvester or oenologist, but the Weimar baby Chris.

He will not become a winemaker, but definitely a good hunter. He spends almost every minute with me and Elroy, the lazy Newfoundlander.

One man's meat is another man's poison. For the vineyard staff, the weather is hard to bear, for the cellar team highly motivating. The grapes come with a temperature of 4° C and there is no need for technical support in order to cool the grapes and must. Therefore, the natural wine clearance is ideal.

Already at 7.00 hrs, at windy, cool but dry weather, the vineyard team needs to start the Chardonnay harvest in Riede Hasel. Yellow-golden grapes with parts of Botrytis of 5% are harvested.

The loss of approx. 50% of Chardonnay grapes, due to the bloom drift, is hardest for us.

In the morning, we finish the harvest of the Riesling Strassertal and continue in the afternoon with Riede Hasel, the first harvest on this site. Golden yellow Veltliner grapes with 18° KMW.

The weather is dry but freezing cold, the wind even gets through the thickest jacket. Our vineyard team is tended with hot wine punch or tea, the mood is still great.

We proceed like last week with Riesling vom großen Stangl, the vineyard of which we achieve a TBA. The grapes are perfectly sorted, healthy and Botrytis berries are put in different cases for the press in the cellar.

Yet another record is set in the vinery Topf: Trockenbeeren with a gradation of 41 KMW. The Trockenbeeren are pressed and fermeted for 24 hours at a degree of 4°C.

A day full of surprisers: 06:00 hrs, the weather ist dry and slightly windy, it seems to be an ideal day for the harvest. 07:00 hrs: light rainfall starts, thus a day off for the harvest crew. 10:00 hrs unexpected stop of the rain, a modest breeze helps to quickly dry the grapes. After some bustling phone calls, we start harvesting at 13:00 hrs with the Blauburgunder Stangl.

The grapes are dry, the berries in rude health and in a perfect condition. Nevertheless I am glad that the grapes do not face another rainfall.

Morning began with a little bit of rain, so we decided to have a break, which lasted only until 10 o`clock.
At mild and dry weather we continued with Rieslingtrauben Strassertal.
Healthy, selected grapes come into the presshouse.

A rainy day for our team. In our cellar, only fermented wines are filled, tasted and analysed. It is always a splendid feeling to taste the young wine.

On this rainy day, we finish the cellar work soon. It is also the first evening since the beginning of the harvest, that Staszek und Anton, the cellar team, can spoil their wifes and sleep in.

Today, we instructed our harvesters to make an exact selection. In Riede Stangl, the Botrytis grapes were separated from the healthy ones, the latter registered as "Prädikat". The first Riesling Trockenbeerenauslese was pressed in our winery. 35° KMW, the harvest modest (95 lt), but the joy great.

The next top site is worked on today - my personal favourite "Wechselberg Spiegel", best for cultivating Riesling grapes.

At summerlike temperatures, the harvester cut and select the Rielsing grapes in a splendid mood.

We continue with uncommon sites during this time of the year and record-breaking gradations. It is the turn of the Heiligenstein, due to the pre-harvest and the excellent weather during the last weeks, the grapes also reach a high gradation. At nearly summerlike temperatures and dry weather, it is harvested under pressure on this site.

A reason are the weather forecasts for the upcomng weekend, as rainfalls are anticipated. And we do not want to expose our top Riesling to any (more) rain.

Uncommon but still true, amidst the harvest we start with the Sauvignon Hasel. The grapes have a gradation of 25° KMW. Never before have we reached a similar gradation in this vineyard, with this grape. Nevertheless, the grapes are very spice and taste like chassis and elder, golden yellow with slight parts of Botrytis of approx. 15%. We expect a truly outstanding Sauvignon Hasel!

The grapes are fermented for 2 hours, followed by a careful press.

4.10.09

Today, Sunday, I take a walk through the vineyards in order fix the the harvest dates for the forthcoming week. The gorgeous weather is not only enjoyed by our grapes. Numerous hikers, strollers, mountainbikers, families are one their way in the vineyards; no wonder - everbody wants to profit by this fabulous autumn.

We have a break at the vineyard, not because of bad weather but due to a lot of work in the cellar.
Our team Hans, Staschek and Toni need the weekend to clean the press and prepare everything.

2.10.09

We will spend the whole day at Wechselberg because harvesting Riesling goes on very slowly.
In the cellar we begin with the processing of GV and Rieslinge and prepare to press the red wine.

Today we stay at Wechselberg and begin with Riesling Wechselberg.
It is high time for our grapes, full-ripely in sugar-gradation and the Botrytis begins already.The vintage precedes very slowly. We do not want any Botrytis that is why we have to select very carefully.

Each grape must be controlled.
The gradation is about 19 degrees Klosterneuburger Mostwaage.

The first part of the day we stay with Grüner Veltliner Strassertal, great healthy GV grapes with an average quality of 17,5 degrees KLW.

God helps us with good weather.
In the morning we began with Zweigelt Sachsenberg. The grapes hang healthy on the vines becaus of the first harvest.
During the processing into red wine tanks, one can recognize we will get an excellent red wine, deeply coloured and more powerfull.
In the afternoon we are in the Veltliner wine gardens of the Riede Hasel and Galgenberg, in order to read the Grüner Veltliner Strassertal.Because of the smaller quantity the Grüner Veltliner grapes progressed already very much in the ripe. It is time to bring them into the cellar as rapidly as possible.
A fast processing is necessary, because the temperatures lie over 25 degrees Celsius. This grapes will be pressed rapidly and will be given into cool tanks with a temperature of 14 degrees afterwards.

At great weather we began with Sauvignon Strassertal today.
The grapes are in a high-mature condition.
Because the berries hang very closely, some pushed themselves open so they begin to putrefy.
We have to select very carefully.
The quality is outstanding, the taste of the grapes is intensive - typical Sauvignon.

Wine harvest 2009
14th to 19th of September

We had cloudy but dry weather when we traditionally started the wine harvest in our vineyard Blickenweg. 14 vineyard labourers were in a good temper and highly motivated. The grapes are in a top condition, the gradation is 17.5° Klosterneuburger Mostwage (KMW). We pressed whole-grapes.

Even though the weather forecasts were bad, we have ideal conditions for the harvest: slightly cloudy and windy, sunny in the afternoons and above all dry.

Wednesday afternoon, we started harvesting the Gelber Muskateller in the vineyard Sental. The grapes are - as in Blickenweg - in a top condition, they ripened 10 days in advance. Unfortunately we gain 20% less than the average harvest. However, the quality is outstanding with 17° KLM. The grapes are extremely intensive in flavour - just as desired. The peduncles were removed from the grapes and for approx. 6 hours fermented on the mash, followed by a gentle press.

On Thursday, the selective pre-harvest in the vineyards Wechselberg and Gaisberg began. About 1/3 were cut out of the Grüner Veltliner vines, some leaves of the remaining grapes were removed. It is very important that the grapes are exposed in order to get enough sunshine and air.

Dear winefriend!

We are happy about the 1st place, which our

Riesling Wechselberg 2008

had won at the current Riesling-wine tasting till 12,5 % of the magazine VINARIA!

Among 180 submitted wines the Riesling Wechselberg 2008 won over through glaze and lushness, presenting itself by the flavours of pineapples, apricots, oranges and passion fruits.

This prehistoric rock-riesling is already delighting, it’s the ideal food attender for light summery kitchen. It is going to be a pleasure even in a few years!

We invite you to taste our Riesling Wechselberg and – of course - also our other wines at our winery.

From Monday till Saturday 9-12am and 1-6pm we are gonna be there for you!

Kind regards from Straß

Hans Topf

August 2009

Our grapes greatly enjoy the humidity and mid-summer temperatures. The growth is perfect, the grapes evolve splendidly.

We are currently busy thinning out the Riesling and Veltliner grapes. The Zweigelt grapes were separated completely. The lower third of the inflorescence is cut; the vine is therefore less fruitful which is necessary for the ripening process of the grapes.

This is usually the standard procedure with the Grüner Veltliner, but due to this years' bloom only few berries per grape ripened -
we couldn't have done the thinning process better than Mother Nature.

Just like in the past two months, many helping hands were needed in the vineyards. Even Maximilian, aged 12, discovered his love for the grapes.

In our cellar, we already make preparations for the filling of Chardonnay Hasel, Sauvignon Hasel and GV Hans Topf.

Thus, we can alreaday fill the wines and the works in the vineyards are done before our plant holidays from August 17-30.

There is high-season in the vineyards now; many helping hands are required. For the second time, the leaves are fixed to the wired frame. The vines are cautiously weeded and the first corrections on the grapes are undertaken.

The side shoots of the two-year-old vines are removed and carefully tied to the supporting vines. It is a delicate work that needs to be done with caution in order to avoid damaging the shoots.

The sudden beginning of the summer with its warm temperatures is greatly appreciated by our vines. They had a wonderful and perfect shoot due to the rainfalls in March and the warm, agreeable temperatures in April. We finished our first intensive works in the vineyards.

This pefect start in the new wine year leaves nothing to be desired. We currently plant new vines in our vineyards and remove grasses and weeds from the younger ones.

In our cellar, we started the bottling of the DAC and Reserve Lagenwine, they are now ready to be tasted and sold - just on time for the Kamptaler Weinfrühling (Wine Spring) and the Tour de Vin.

The biological degradation of acid is completed with those wines stored in the new wooden barrels.

In the vineyards, the grasses and bushes are in bloom, it already smells like summer. This is one more reason to stroll through the vineyards and taste our new wines.

We look forward to welcoming you!

During the last days of february we finished cutting the vines.
A lot of rain was perfect for the ground.

Now we fix the wire in our vineyard to ensure the stability of our vines.

In the cellar we are busy with filling our first Lageweine. Grüner Veltliner Wechselberg 2008 is also Kamptal DAC.

In the middle of march our Green gets a new appearance. The bottle has been adjusted to the elegant charm of the wine and fits perfectly to the bottle design of Topf.

February 2009

"There is no such thing as bad weather, just inappropiate clothing." All our helping hands spend their times in the vineyards to cut the vines. Now we are busy with Rieden Hasel, Wechselberg Spiegel, Heiligenstein and Sachsenberg.

January, 20th 2009

January, 12th 2009