The rainy summer might have been hard on holidayers but it was definitely harder on winemakers. According to the modest opinion, the result isn't catastrophic, but for example István Jásdi stated he wouldn't make a Codex wine from this year's crop. Recently, we visited the harvest at the Szászi Pince to see what an organic winery does with this year's accursed grapes.

It's OK from afar: the 365 gobelet-trained Weschriesing vine stocks look expressly good

The organically cultivated Cabernet sauvignon looks fine as well

The Kéknyelű is a sensitive variety and doesn't tolerate excessive rain well. Szászi told us that this bunch of grapes shows signs of 'hens and chicks' (millerandage) as a result of the cool, rainy weather

The post-apocalyptic look of the picture is one thing, but notice the flowers that serve to supply the necessary amount of insects for organic protection

Behold, the compulsory pic of the magnificent panorama

OK, here's another one. The water in the background seems to be a model Balaton, but in fact it is groundwater flood

The grape is transferred from the boxes as fast as possible

...to the de-stemmer. And the helping hand in the process is a big gun, none other than...

a real Lamborghini.

The traditional press rests in peace

...replaced in the process after the de-stemmer by the pneumatic press

And the end result will look something like this in a bit. At the Szászi Pince, the usual production of 500 hl...

...will be but 250 hl this year. According to the Szászi family, organic farming had a really hard time to adapt to the circumstances, but 'neither could other cultivation methods make miracles happen.'

This will not make it to wine: pomace is used to produce seed powder and oil. And the answer to the question that has just popped up in everyone's mind: no, here they don't make pomace pálinka, since pomace is too valuable as an organic raw material

At the end of the harvest, we could take a look at the vineyard from above

Last but not least, here are the protagonists