Artisan Wines News in July

Flowering and Summertime

Flowering and Fruit set

This years flowering of our vines happened rather early at the end of May. Not really surprising though. Just think about the warm spring temperatures. I am quite pleased with the fruit set, especially with our Welschriesling vineyards. The Saint Laurent vines are still suffering a bit from last years cold weather conditions during bloom. 

This year we've started an internal trial for our Zweigelt vines. All clusters were cut in half right after bloom. On the one hand this action causes looser grapes and on the other hand we've brought down the yield early to reduce the stress, caused by drought, of our vines. Thinning of the Merlot grapes is done the "traditional" way and one will find a clip of this work at Artisan Wines and Artisan Wines on Youtube.

Summer loves RoséAbsolutely perfect with hot summer nights goes a glass of ice-cold Pure Rosé. In a self-experiment we've tested some versions - pure, Aperol-Spritz, "normal" Spritzer, iced strawberry punch. My personal favorite was "normal" Pure Rosé Spritzer as it was the most refreshing version :-)
Please let us know how you like our wines best at Artisan Wines on Facebook or as Wine comment.

New partners
We are happy to announce two new distributors and one Marketing partner for Artisan Wines as of June 2011.

Wein&Co Handelsges.m.b.H.19x in Österreich
SCS, Autoallee 7, Top 25
2334 Vösendorf-Süd

Der Wein Push
Fritz-Arnold-Strasse 16
78467 Konstanz

Burgenland Tourismus
Johann Permayer-Strasse 13
A-7000 Eisenstadt
www.burgenland.info

Please find our detailed Partner list here. 

The artisanal way to close bottles

Follo wthe link below and see how we close Magnum bottles at Artisan Wines. Just those which don't fit into our bottling line though :-)

The artisanal way to close bottles

Artisan Wines News in June

Weather conditions

Vineyard work
Warm temperatures and enough water ensured a quick growth of our vines. Currently we are rather busy with the shoot positioning and with this quick development you may start at the other end of the vineyard as soon you finished one row. One will find the clips of this work at Artisan Wines and Artisan Wines on Youtube.

Huge damage for the vineyards of our friend Rudi Wagentristl brought a hailstorm in the first days of May. Have a close look of the devastations at his blog.

Ratings
We are very proud to announce that our Artisan Wines Pure Rosé 2010 came on second to top (category Zweigelt - rated 2 glasses) in the recent Rosé tasting of Wein Burgenland in cooperation with Genuss.Magazin. Download the complete article with this link - Rosé Verkostung. (german version only) 

Asparagus season
As always one will find seasonal recipes at our Artisan Wines - Wine&Food section with the asparagus special now. The new Smörgastorta recipe pairs very well with the current warm temperatures. 

Pure Sauvignon Blanc
Most unfortunately we need to announce that our Pure Sauvignon Blanc 2010 is sold out ex cellar.

Kind regards
Franz Schneider

Artisan Wines News in May

Work in the vineyards

The nice temperatures made our vines growing rather fast and this means loads of vineyard work for us. The recent work steps are cleaning the stems and the Shoot removal. With this work we are reducing the shoots and the yield per vine. The remaining shoots will grow stronger and healthier with all power focused on them. One will find the clip at Artisan Wines News and Youtube - Artisan Wines.

Birthday of Artisan Wines
Quite unnoticed passed the first birthday of Artisan Wines on the 1st of May. I would like to thank my family and friends for their huge amount of work, our partners and of course you, dear customer, as without you, Artisan Wines would not exist. As we are trying to get better every year we are looking forward to your comments at franz@artisanwines.at

New partners
We very proud to welcome following partners at Artisan Wines. You will find our wines now at:  

Heuriger-Vinothek SchlossahausStefan Haubenwallner
Stiftsgasse 18
7123 Mönchhof

St. Martins Therme & Lodge Restaurant
Im Seewinkel 1
7132 Frauenkirchen

BUNT Das Eventrestaurant
Hietzinger Hauptstrasse 162
1130 Wien

Cucina Wetter
Payergasse 13/4, Ecke Weyprechtgasse
1160 Wien

Weinstadl Bad Tatzmannsdorf
Tschabbachweg 17
7431 Bad Tatzmannsdorf

Find more contact details to this partners here.

Recent wine ratings
We are proud to present the first ratings of our wines this year. Magazine "Wein.Pur" mentioned us in their "Best of Austria 2011"-guide on page 211. Please find a small excerpt of the ratings below:

Pure Sauvignon Blanc 2010 - very good price-value ratio
Pure Rosé 2010 - tip of the editors & very good price-value ratio
Halbturn White 2009 - good ageing potential for several years

We are very pleased with these good ratings for our wines but the most important rating is yours. Think about to add your wine comments here!

Artisan Wines News in April

Clips and tastings

New clips
The recent video clip features the first two steps of the vineyard work at Artisan Wines. The Pruning and the Binding of the shoots is the foundation to an even canopy development and determines a huge part of the yield and therefore both steps are crucial in producing high quality grapes. One will find the clip at Artisan Wines News and Youtube - Artisan Wines.

Restructuring Wine&Food-page
We've changed the structure of our Artisan Wines - Wine&Food section. New sections are "soups", "summer recipes", "South Africa" and Asparagus recipes". The face-lift helps you to find your  favorite recipe much quicker than before.

Tasting opportunities
The next opportunity to taste our wines will be on 8th of April 2011 at 5 p.m. at theSt. Martins Spa & Lodge. We are looking forward to pour our complete range of wines at this occasion. If you enjoy dinner at St. Martins restaurant look out for our wines. They are available by the glass!
On 14th of April 2011 we will present our wines as part of the "Wein Burgenland" wine fair at the Radisson Blu Carlton Hotel, Hviezdoslavovo námestie 3 in Bratislava.
We are looking forward to welcoming you at both events!