Frost risk

A night that everyone was afraid of

Frost is a huge danger for vine plants.

(Bild: Sepp Pail)

The night before Friday - it was another very tricky, extremely dreaded night for Styrian winegrowers! Under no circumstances should it be less than 0.5 degrees below zero, it was said in advance - especially as the loss in the vineyards beforehand was already considerable in some cases.

"Individual farms were certainly badly affected by the frost," says Stefan Potzinger from the well-known winery of the same name. "But I wouldn't want to stylize it as a catastrophe. I estimate that the total loss is around seven percent and therefore within the normal fluctuation range." Werner Frauwallner, who is currently highly decorated in the international Sauvignon competition, also agrees: "Fortunately, it was not comparable to the horror year of 2016." He himself had to take measures against the frost in parts of his vineyards, "but we got off lightly".

Gerhard Wohlmuth

(Bild: Kronenzeitung)

Gerhard Wohlmuth, Styrian entrepreneur and member of the supervisory board of Austrian Wine Marketing, takes a much more serious view. "I expect a general loss of 20 percent, in sensitive locations even a third." And he was particularly worried yesterday night: "At the moment, the state of development in the vineyard is such that some of the shoots are already there, i.e. the grape set. This is a very sensitive status, because these are young shoots that are in full sap. They can tolerate a maximum of 0.5 degrees below zero."

Let's hope that the winegrowers can then sleep well again. According to the forecast, the weather is set to reach the next high point in its April rollercoaster ride. Temperatures are now rising again - and could reach 30 degrees again by the end of April. Extremes for which April is notorious.