Letter Winter 2022

Dear wine friends,

With sunshine and spring-like warm temperatures, October is unusually friendly – the dry, hot year seems to be continuing for a while. We harvested our grapes unusually quickly. A harvest start on September 12th followed by three busy weeks and our small harvest was complete.

The grape year got off to a very good start in spring, with no late frosts and good flowering. Best conditions for a good and productive year. Then in July and August the disillusionment – ​​on the slopes and young plantations – dusty dryness and drought, yellowing, sad-looking vines thirsty for rain. What could you have done? Water? 20 liters per vine would be needed per week, with 30 hectares of vineyards this would be around 2.5 million liters of water – per week. Where should one take the quantities of water and how to get them into the vineyards? And does this make sense in the long term?

Dry years come and go, but there have also been hot years. However, they seem to be getting more frequent, 2003, 2011, 2018, 2019, 2022, years remembered for being extremely dry. We therefore think that the vines should and must get used to the drought in the long term. If we spoil and water them now, they will never develop the necessary roots to seek and find water in the depths. Despite the drought, groundwater is sufficiently available in the areas near the Moselle in Palzem. While the vines and grapes often dried up on the steep slopes (and the yields were correspondingly low), the old vines in Palzem were doing surprisingly well. It confirms once again what Erwin Sauerwein wrote in his summer letter back in 1988: “We strive for the vines to be as old as possible, the deeper roots and lower yields mean we can expect better wines”.

Especially in these extreme years, we like to look back at Erwin's old customer letters and realize that a lot is repeating itself. He always wrote the letters in spring, summer and autumn/winter.

Initially on the typewriter, then by hand, duplicated in the copy shop and until a few years ago we folded them ourselves in the family, packed them and sent them together with the wine lists stapled by Grandpa Otto. Thanks to Mr. Pink, one of our first loyal customers, we have had the collected letters and wine lists since 1986. When moving, he wanted to clear out the living room shelves and also dispose of the collected works. Edith bought them from him for two crates of Elbling. A good, one-time purchase – and a wonderful Christmas present for Erwin. It is also a treasure for us children to be able to read the old works and lines. Much is still relevant now, more than 30 years later: “Growing grapevines still means being dependent on nature. This is appealing and sometimes a bit hard.” (Erwin, summer 1991)

One's suffering, the other's joy – the hot, dry summer in the vineyard is a problem, but is very welcome at the wine festivals. Christian du Toit Schmidt and we can look back on successful summer wine festivals. Our wines are popular and people like to drink them. The 9-euro ticket was often used intensively, and the wine festivals were visited. However, this means that our wine warehouse is already very empty.

The following have already been drunk: 2021 Schwarzriesling Rosé Feinherb, Roter Riesling Feinherb and Pinot Gris from the shell limestone. As an alternative to Pinot Gris, Christian recommends Chardonnay-Auxerrois (No. 23.22). Otherwise, the 2022 vintage can be pre-ordered. The new wines will be shipped after bottling, from mid-March 2023. In this way, you can still secure our “old” prices. We have not increased the wine prices this year, despite significantly increased costs. We think that since everything has already felt and will become more expensive, at least the wine should remain the same in this crazy year.

The following wines are almost drunk: Gewürztraminer Grand Premier Cru (No. L221), Gewürztraminer Sweet (No. 28.22), Rosé from the shell limestone (No. 32.22), Fruzzante (No. 91.21), Red Enjoyment (No. 51.17) and Riesling Spätlese Fine dry (No. 17.21). However, our diverse range (almost) always offers good alternatives that can be a pleasure to discover: fresh and fruity Elblinge, the gentle Rotling Feinherb, the sweet Ortega Spätlese, the strong, warming red wines for cold winter evenings and great sparkling wine for the holidays.

We look forward to your order, if possible, by November 20th, so that we can deliver in time for Christmas. We send your wines immediately after receipt of the order, usually with DPD in a postal box (delivery time 2 to 4 days). On request with DHL. Quantities from 60 bottles on request with a forwarding agent (also directly to the cellar, delivery time 1 to 2 months, unfortunately only available in a few regions). If possible, we send 120 bottles or more with the Hellmann forwarding agency on a half-pallet in 6-pack wine boxes (delivery time 2 to 4 days).

Our new guest house got off to a very good start in the high season of September and October. Happy, impressed guests and satisfied hosts, that's what we had imagined and hoped for. Even in the winter months, the weekends are often and gladly booked for a short break and intensive, individual wine tasting with a tour of the winery and cellar tasting on the barrel. Photos of the rooms at zeit.sauerweins.de.

The Sauerweins are fine. Our family has grown again, Judith and Matthias had children in mid-October: Raphael, good-natured and patient, dearly loved, cuddled and cuddled by Johanna and Theodor. Theodor rather cautiously, Johanna impetuously and consistently. If the little one yells too much for her, she quickly shoves the pacifier into his mouth. Or even a thumb. Theodor, at the age of four, says surprisingly clever things “Dad, do we have a really nice life?” and is interested in Grandpa Erwin. On All Saints' Day he really wanted to go to the cemetery to have the graves blessed and probably found it quite interesting.

We wish you a healthy Advent season, a Merry Christmas and a good start into the New Year!

With kind regards,

the Sauerweins

P.S.:        SAUERWEINS Advent calendar offers varied enjoyment every day – 24 different wines, sparkling wine and alcohol-free, each lovingly individually packed by hand, plus interesting descriptions and recipes – this time even with the increasingly rare ice wine.