Germany’s 2011 – a vintage of the century?

With the hottest and driest April for decades, the 2011 growing season leapt out of the starting blocks like Usain Bolt in a 100-metre sprint, but we all know what happened to him at the World Championships. He was punished for jumping the gun, and the same fate was shared by a great number of unfortunate vines in Franken and Württemberg, which were stopped in their flowering tracks by severe night frosts in early May. Most other regions got away lightly, but Franken's crop was...