The grape harvest 1540
At the beginning of August, the grapes were ripe in many vineyards, but the berries had dried up, so that vine-growers waited until September for more rain before harvesting. The delayed harvest produced a large quantity of inexpensive, honey-sweet wine, which tempted even the less wealthy to excessive alcohol consumption. Contemporary chronicler Hermann von Weinsberg wrote in his autobiographical diary that many people in Cologne lay 'like pigs' in the gutters and behind hedges, dead drunk.