On Friday, September 1, our wine-growing families began picking grapes for the base wines used in sparkling wines. Due to the consequences of the July hailstorm, we anticipate a smaller yield this year. Our wine-growing families are expected to deliver approximately 6,500 tons of grapes to the cellar. We anticipate a promising year for white varieties, while the quality of red varieties will be significantly influenced by the weather in the coming month. Grape prices will be higher, but the exact increase depends on the quality, which is still subject to the weather during the harvest.

For vine growers, this year’s season has been full of challenges. The cold spring delayed bud break and shoot development, and young shoots were exposed to various pests for an extended period. Summer also brought frequent rain, making protection against downy and powdery mildew demanding. This year, our early detection and infection monitoring system, which we have been developing for years, proved highly effective, enabling us to promptly inform vine growers about when and how to protect the grapevines from diseases. Vine growers who carefully followed the advice of our advisory service experienced less crop loss and significantly higher-quality yields.

In such a demanding year, differences in vineyard locations become evident, as areas with excellent vineyard sites had fewer phytopathological issues. In July, Brda was also hit by hail, resulting in a quarter of the crop being lost. Consequently, this year’s harvest will be more challenging as damaged grapes from the hail will need to be sorted, consuming a lot of time and requiring more pickers than during a typical harvest.

We began harvesting grapes for the base wines used in sparkling wines, produced from Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, on Friday, September 1, 2023, and continued with Rebula for sparkling wines during the weekend. The regular harvest is expected to start this Thursday. The majority of the harvest will be completed by the end of September, while Cabernets and some special varieties will remain in the vineyards until mid-October.

Visits from business partners represent one of the most important marketing tools for Klet Brda, which is export-oriented. The reality experienced by Brda vine growers, who work on steep slopes, is often hard for foreigners to imagine. Only when they experience the harvest firsthand and feel the pulse of the local people can they truly understand the wines. We are currently hosting distributors from the USA, and this visit will be followed by visits from importers from Italy, China, Brazil, and Serbia.

During the harvest, we hope for dry and moderately warm weather. We wish you a pleasant September!