imagine Before we put ourselves with a glass of sweet apricot spritzer mentally in the Wachau, to us, as we leave on a Church square, sitting on a summer day the views along the blue-green Danube, through vineyards and fruit trees, needs to be clarified: Is the famous apricot the Wachau is really so much more than just a humble Austrian apricot?
Johanna Kuroczik
editor in the Department “science” of the Frankfurt General Sunday newspaper.
F. A. Z.
The “Original Wachau apricot” is a soft orange with red Speckles, and tastes particularly sweet, in spite of their acidic nuances. With a seal around 220 growers guarantee since 2003, in the Wachau region, only traditional varieties, the “klosterneuburger Marille to grow, mainly”. The origin of the species Prunus armeniaca in China and Central Asia, with the support of the Roman Empire, the apricot is but since about two thousands of years in the lower Austrian valley home. Tags reigns Pannonian heat, which provides close to the forest area for cool nights: This game have a direct influence on the taste, says the EU document to the “protected designation of origin” of the Wachau apricot. However, the old varieties were sensitive, says Franz Reisinger, Chairman of the Association “Wachauer Marille PDO” – and Lord of more than 2000 trees. Take your white flowers usually in March. If it freezes then, again, ruined the harvest, so it was this year.
A bad year for the apricot
with the warm Winter, the trees bloomed early, a few days of cold air from Scandinavia in April, quite enough to keep the income in the summer of 2020, just five per cent of the usual amount of shrink. Last week the harvest began: several Times a day the farmers and their helpers pull the series through the tree, because the fruit must be picked at the right time. Optimal is when you can easily from the Branch to solve. “We harvest with the eyes,” says Reisinger. The stone fruit tastes only until the next day really good, you can get muddy and is not worth more then to jam. Apricot is grow is always with risk, the white of the Fruit grower. In case of rain, the tires would burst of fruit on the trees, then the already maue harvest down the drain would be. 2020 is a very bad year for the apricots: this weekend the population of the Wachau to celebrate (along with Thousands of tourists) usually, the annual apricot festival, a folk festival on the Church square in Spitz. Particularly rich in tradition, the mayor praises it, even though it takes place only in 1951. However, between apricot not more dumplings, neat apricot brandy and Wachau wine to take care of such Details. Because of the Corona pandemic, the fruit sauce is now.
