VINEYARD owners in the Small Carpathian viticulture region say this year’s harvest of grapes was quite poor and the weather was especially damaging.
“I’ve been working in vineyards for 30 years and I do not remember such a poor year,” Milan Pavelka, head of the Small Carpathian Wine Route, told the TASR newswire, saying that the town of Pezinok and its vicinity were hit by a hailstorm that led to the devastation of up to 80 percent of the harvest; in some places destroying 100 percent.
“Afterwards, there was significant pressure on the vines from various diseases. I don’t ever remember having such an enormous part of the soil damaged as happened this year,” Pavelka added. “Usually, weather influences one locality but others are okay. This year, the weather devastated the vineyards of four municipalities around Pezinok,” he lamented.
Ján Krampl, the CEO of Villa Vino Rača, was slightly more optimistic. “As for the quality of the grapes, I think this was one of the most complex years from the point of view of climate. We experienced less sunshine, strong rains, and even hail. There were also diseases and pests. However, in my 30 years of growing wine grapes, I remember lots of years and the quality of the wine is different each year – also from different points of view. Wine is never good or bad, it can be only better or worse,” said Krampl.
