{"id":4492,"date":"2023-02-20T09:35:00","date_gmt":"2023-02-20T08:35:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/holdvolgy.com\/?p=4492"},"modified":"2025-12-12T13:42:43","modified_gmt":"2025-12-12T12:42:43","slug":"rewards-of-a-difficult-vintage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/holdvolgy.com\/en\/rewards-of-a-difficult-vintage","title":{"rendered":"REWARDS OF A DIFFICULT VINTAGE"},"content":{"rendered":"
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2022 was all about challenges and sad events in the world. Difficulties caused by the unusually extreme weather in Hungary deepened the problems. Solutions required deeper thoughts, more precise planning and harder decisions at the Estate this year. First and foremost the goal was to create all of our main products in high quality for two reasons: ensuring economic stability and providing continuity for our customers and partners. But in such a vintage we have never thought that creating rarities we have never made before could be possible. Collecting berries again for the CULTURE 6 puttonyos tokaji asz\u00fa was achievable again, for the 17th time without interruption since 2006.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis shows again that it is worth investing the highest level of professional work and knowledge into these historical first growth vineyards. The wines created in the most difficult vintages obviously show us that the original vineyard classification of the region (established hundred years ago) is more than valid also today.\u201d - Pascal Demk\u00f3 the founder and owner of Holdv\u00f6lgy<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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RAIN AND SNOW ARE INEVITABLE IN THE WINTER<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
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The winter of 21\/22 was mild and poor of rain and snow. This made a well-paced pruning possible but had a substantial drawback as well: till the end of February the soil could not absorb enough water for the upcoming growing season which impacted the workload and the expenditures negatively throughout the year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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DELAYED BUDDING, HECTIC BLOOMING<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
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Spring arrived slowly in March with chilly mornings and low temperatures which did not increase during the day either. As data show, these conditions lasted till April: the average monthly temperature (based on the previous years) fell behind with 1,94\u00b0C. Because of that, budding took place only on the 22nd of April at the Ny\u00fal\u00e1sz\u00f3 and Dorg\u00f3 vineyards, 2 weeks later than usual. Thanks to the dry and warm weather in May the plant was able to catch-up. The first signs of blooming appeared on time on the 31st of May but continued imbalanced.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The temperatures of June exceeded the usual average of the wine region by 2,85\u00b0C, and rain fell short by 59,1 mm which made this month the hottest and 3rd driest June of the last 50 years. The rapid increase in temperatures and the escalating drought had an adverse effect on all types of grapes but H\u00e1rslevel\u0171 experienced the most intensive stress of all. Less berries were impregnated which showed early signs of yield loss. Our team somewhat managed to counterbalance it, but only a substantial amount of rain could have been able to provide a final solution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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THE DRIEST AND HOTTEST SUMMER OF THE LAST CENTURY<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
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The summer was characterized by extreme heatwaves and drought and weather conditions also worsened further till the harvest. In July, temperatures stayed above 30\u00b0C and parallel to that the amount of rain was substantially lower than usual (52 mm less than the average amount). Temperatures started to cool down only at the end of August, but rain still remained absent. Based on meteorological data, the summer of 2022 was the driest and hottest of the last 100 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Till the end of the season plant growth slowed gradually, pulpy and water stressed berries appeared with high polyphenol content and sugar levels were skyrocketing. These conditions urged an early harvest of our dry wines, starting off with collecting the Z\u00e9ta grape on the 24th of August and finishing the process on the 8th of September with our dry furmint. Despite these challenging circumstances the quality of the fruit exceeded our expectations, it was fine and juicy as it should be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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DIFFICULTIES OF THE SWEET HARVEST<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
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This period was followed by 3 weeks of constant rain. The amount of rainfall in September was 3 times higher than the average of the previous years. It caused severe problems. Sugar levels were declining and botrytis rose slowly because humidity and the foggy weather constantly diluted the berries. Last but not least grape skin became thicker due to the dry and warm summer conditions which made it harder for the botrytis to break through and hindered the healthy spread of mold. The rising pressure caused by the aforementioned circumstances aggravated the decision on the optimal date for our sweet harvest. Finally it started in the Ny\u00fal\u00e1sz\u00f3 vineyard on the 10th October, three weeks later than usual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ensuring the HOLDV\u00d6LGY quality for our flagship wine the 6 puttonyos tokaji asz\u00fa, we started harvesting our 1st class asz\u00fa berries only on the 19th of October. After this day harvest became slower and more time consuming. Our team had to revisit all of our parcells to collect enough grapes for the needed sweet presses. The harvest period ended on the 4th of November in the Becsek and Kir\u00e1ly vineyards. tokaji asz\u00fa cs\u00facsborunkhoz<\/a>. Ezut\u00e1n a sz\u00fcret m\u00e1r folyamatosan lassult \u00e9s id\u0151ig\u00e9nyesebb\u00e9 v\u00e1lt, hiszen a sz\u00e1raz sz\u00fcretben m\u00e1r \u00e9rintett parcell\u00e1kat kellett \u00fajra \u00e1tj\u00e1rnunk a tov\u00e1bbi borainkhoz sz\u00fcks\u00e9ges \u00e9des pr\u00e9s mennyis\u00e9gek el\u00e9r\u00e9s\u00e9hez. A folyamatot november 4-\u00e9n z\u00e1rtuk a Becsek- \u00e9s a Kir\u00e1ly-d\u0171l\u0151ben.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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PRECISE VITICULTURAL ACTIVITIES AND CREATIVE WINE MAKING<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
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2022 was definitely much more complicated than the previous vintages. The ripening process of the different varieties overlapped each other in a way never experienced before. The key was constant measurement and re-planning, only these could help setting the ideal harvest dates varieties by varieties to reach the required amounts of grapes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Signs of heavy drought not only appeared on the bunches, but caused trouble during the winemaking process as well. The sweet components were thicker this year, which made the pressing and even the settlement of the stum more complicated and it caused a decrease in the amount of the pressed juice too. Despite all of these we will present a truly diverse portfolio with new wines, thanks to the careful, creative mindset and work of our winemaker.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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HOLDV\u00d6LGY WINES TO BE RELEASED FROM VINTAGE 2022:<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

VISION dry estate blend
MEDITATION dry furmint
EXPRESSION dry h\u00e1rslevel\u0171
INTUITION No2. dry muscat \u00e0 petits grains
ELOQUENCE sweet szamorodni
EXALTATION parcel selected late harvest Muscat a Petits Grains
INTUITION No1. parcel selected sweet Z\u00e9ta szamorodni
CULTURE 6 puttonyos tokaji asz\u00fa
HOLD AND HOLLO UPPP off-dry sparkling wine
HOLD AND HOLLO DRY blend
HOLD AND HOLLO SWEET blend<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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HOLDV\u00d6LGY WINES THAT MAYBE WILL BE RELEASED FROM 2022:<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

INTUITION No4. dry Kabar
INTUITION No5. sweet H\u00e1rslevel\u0171 szamorodni
INTUITION No9. sweet Furmint szamorodni<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Solutions required deeper thoughts, more precise planning and harder decisions at the Estate this year. First and foremost the goal was to create all of our main products in high quality.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":3860,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","iawp_total_views":20,"footnotes":""},"categories":[84],"tags":[113,237],"class_list":["post-4492","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-szolo","tag-evjaratjelentes","tag-hun-cikkek"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/holdvolgy.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4492","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/holdvolgy.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/holdvolgy.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/holdvolgy.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/holdvolgy.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4492"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/holdvolgy.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4492\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/holdvolgy.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3860"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/holdvolgy.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4492"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/holdvolgy.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4492"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/holdvolgy.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4492"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}