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According to the German Wine Institute, the German vintage year 2020 produced very good qualities and a slightly below-average harvest of an estimated 8.6 million hectolitres. On many farms, the harvest, which was now largely completed, was completed after only three to four weeks. Nationwide, the currently forecast yields for the 2020 vintage are expected to be around 8.6 million hectolitres, roughly at the level of the ten-year average of 8.7 million hectolitres and three percent higher than the previous year's yield.
The "summer in September" has significantly accelerated the wine harvest. With sunshine and temperatures often well over 25 degrees Celsius, the sugar content of the grapes rose rapidly, so that many varieties reached harvest maturity at the same time. Harvesting was therefore often carried out in the early hours of the morning or even at night in order to get the grapes into the cellar as cool as possible.
However, late frosts, drought and evaporation in the berries caused significant harvest losses in many regions. Therefore, the estimated yields in the thirteen German wine-growing regions are very heterogeneous. They range from minus 38 percent compared to the ten-year average yield in Franconia to a plus of 31 percent on the Hessische Bergstrasse. In Rheinhessen the expected yield is minus one percent, in the Palatinate it is plus six percent. Baden and Württemberg each estimate a harvest minus of ten percent.
(uka / Photo: German Wine Institute)