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While 2017 saw the lowest wine production worldwide for years, Austria was able to harvest a very good harvest in terms of both quantity and quality. This is reported by Österreich Wein Marketing (ÖWM). The approximately 2.6 million hl represented one quarter more than the five-year average. Late frosts and hail will again occur in 2017, but will cause far less damage than in the previous year. Only the Weinviertel region recorded a smaller harvest in 2017 than on average, caused by "extreme drought in one of the hottest summers in a long time".

According to ÖWM, the year 2017 will be characterised by constant temperature changes, which will result in record weather conditions. January was the coldest of the past 30 years and was also very dry. February was "extraordinarily warm". This was followed by the warmest March ever recorded in 251 years, and as a result the plants began to flower earlier. The dryness since the beginning of the year also continued in the wine-growing regions, with only one millimetre of rainfall in the south of Styria. In terms of temperature, the following April again offered the opposite: the coolest for nine years brought a massive cold air intrusion in the second half of the month, which caused frost damage. This April cold also reduced the fortnight's vegetation lead. As a contrast, May was again above average warm and in June temperatures continued to rise - it was the second warmest in 251 years of weather records. The strong heat wave with drought in the second half of the month was particularly bad.

July continued the drought with two heat waves, and only a cold spell brought some softening and precipitation - but again too little for the Weinviertel. It was also very dry in August. In the Weinviertel and in northern Burgenland there was up to 50 percent less rain. Accordingly, the Weinviertel in particular had to accept crop failures (minus seven percent compared to the previous year), and the northern Burgenland also had to struggle with the same problems. Many winegrowers tried to irrigate their vineyards this summer in order to save the harvest. But even the application of one million litres of water was not very successful.

The grape harvest had started early with a ripening advantage of almost two weeks, but after a third of the harvest time, the following month made a slight difference. Although the cool and generally damp September 2017 repeatedly led to unwanted interruptions to the harvest, October was a pleasant month, with the harvest largely completed by mid-October. The very good grape quality had also made it possible to raise the maximum yield per hectare by the permitted 20 percent nationwide, so that the affected farms could partially compensate for last year's harvest losses.

(uka / Photo: ÖWM / Kamptal Committee)

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