Austrian Winemakers Expect Smaller, High Quality 2012 Harvest

A Winter frost and late May frosts were significantly problematic for the wine growing sector. Major damage was caused especially by the late frost throughout the night of May 17th -18th, with temperatures dipping to -5° Celsius. The northern Weinviertel (around the Pulkautal region) and other parts of Niederösterreich (Lower Austria) as well as northern and central Burgenland were affected.  Altogether, more than 6,000 hectares of vineyards suffered from frost damage; of these, 4,000 ha were a total loss. According to the  Österreichische Hagelversicherung (Austrian Hail Insurance), damages from the frosts have been put at approximately € 14 million.

The vineyard soils had very low moister in Winter due to the lack of rainfall – so the heavy rains in the early Summer were most welcome. Unfortunately, there were heavy storms as well – with massive hail damage in many vineyard areas. Of particular note was the early hail on May 5th in the Thermenregion in Niederösterreich, where damage to the young buds was quite severe. Other damaging hailstorms occurred on July 5th in the Mittelburgenland and on July 19th in the Poysdorf area of the Weinviertel. Several other hail storms were recorded in the Steiermark (Styria). According to the Österreichische Hagelversicherung, the costs from hail damage amount to more than € 8 million.