20213041_WGDE2021_ENGL

PFALZ | A PORTRAIT OF THE REGION
Guests were relaxed and relieved, saying:
“How lovely that you are here and that it
is so busy here.” Before the new lockdown
was announced in early November, they
even managed to stage a particular
highlight: “We called it ‘the encounter of
gods’,” says Hellert. “We had five wine
estates in our courtyard who all make
wine from the Schwarzer Herrgott
vineyard.” Her guests loved the event. The
young businesswoman meets the fact that
the renewed lockdown ruins her
November sales, and possibly those of the
entire winter ahead, with gallows humour:
“One can make the best use of time by
developing new concepts. We have enough
ideas up our sleeve.”
Outside in the vineyard, nature just ran its
course despite this corona-year – and did
so in a particularly pleasing fashion. “We
cannot complain at all,” says Katrin Wind
in Arzheim, one of the southern Pfalz’s
most successful winemakers. “When
lockdown hit at the end of March the
brilliant sunshine continued for weeks.
What great balm for the psyche. The air
was so clear, never before have I been able
to see the Black Forest from the Kalmit
vineyard.” Likewise, the rest of the
growing season had been almost ideal, she
Weingut Von Winning made it to the top
under the auspices of Stephan Attmann
says: “Temperatures were moderate and
did not reach the spikes of 2018 and 2019.
The Pinot-varieties required a turbo-quick
harvest, but I am very happy with the
2020 Rieslings. The Riesling from the
Kalmit vineyard has an acidity of 8.5g/l
and a pH level of 2.9! Perfect!”
Corona-restrictions, at least in the
vineyard, barely caused problems. “It’s
not really difficult to keep your distance
when working in the vineyard or
harvesting,” she reports. It was harder to
Photos: Shutterstock, provided, Weingut Waldkirch/David Weimann
Sophie Christmann‘s Spätburgunder, for which
she is responsible at her parental estate, caused
a real stir during this year’s tastings
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