The Ahr and the Emergence of German Reds
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©2010 Sommelier Journal. May not be distributed without permission. www.sommelierjournal.com The Ahr and the emergence of German reds CHRISTOPHER BATES, CWE t is not exactly breaking news that Germany to pass Müller-Thurgau to become the coun- has been making red wines able to stand try’s second-most-planted grape variety behind side by side with many of the world’s famous Riesling. While Müller-Thurgau production Ilabels. In 2006, a collector traded a bottle has declined since 1975, the percentage of Ger- of Domaine de la Romanée-Conti for a bottle of man vineyard land dedicated to Riesling has re- hans-Peter Wöhrwag’s 2003 Untertürkheimer mained incredibly stable at around 21%, while herzogenberg Pinot Noir from Württemberg. A the amount devoted to Spätburgunder has risen one-off, for sure, but it may also have been a hint from 3% to 12%. of things to come. In 2008, Decanter magazine Even though the current hype makes it easy named a German red wine the best in the world to think of Germany as a new red-wine-produc- for its variety, and again, it was a Pinot Noir: ing culture, red-grape plantings were document- Weingut Meyer-Näkel’s 2005 Spätburgunder ed here as early as 570 A.D., and Pinot Noir was Dernauer Pfarrwingert Grosses Gewächs. identified as early as 1318. It was not until 1435 Actually, nearly a third of German vine- that plantings of Riesling were first recorded. In yards are planted to red grapes. Spätburgunder, the Ahr, it is commonly believed that vines were as Pinot Noir is known in Germany, is about grown in Roman times, although the first docu- 56 January 31, 2010 Special Report Jean Stodden Recher Herr- enberg vineyard. Christopher Bates has been working in restau- rants since he was 15, but mented plantings were in 893 at the Benedic- rhein, between Bonn and Koblenz. As the river started cooking much ear- tine Prüm Abbey. Now, after some 1,200 years snakes out of Altenahr (at an altitude of 984 lier. After studying hotel administration at Cornell of obscurity, this Anbaugebiet is finally emerg- feet), the vineyards are steep enough to be mis- University, he worked in ing as a premier red-wine producer. taken for those of the Mosel, except that the val- wineries in Valpolicella, ley is narrower. In fact, 93% of the vineyard land the Mosel, New York, The terroir in the Ahr has more than a 20% grade. The soil Oregon, and Washington. changes dramatically over the valley’s 15 miles, He was general manager The Ahr, located between 50° and 51° north from decomposed volcanic slate in the narrow at The Inn at Dos Brisas latitude, is the world’s northernmost red-wine- upper parts, as in the Mittelmosel, yielding in Brenham, Texas, for growing region. It also happens to be one of the wines with crisp focus, to soils rich in loess and more than three and a half hotbeds of activity in Germany’s red-wine renais- clay with decomposed rock in the lower, wider, years, seeing the program sance. This tiny region encompasses only 1,300 flatter parts closest to the Rhine, producing big- through enfranchisement acres under vine as of 2006 (an increase of 15% ger, more full-bodied reds. The combination of by Relais & Châteaux and Relais Gourmand and a since 1992), making it Germany’s fourth-small- these features with the moderating influence of Mobil Five Star award, est winegrowing region—ahead of only the Mit- the Eifel mountains and nearly 1,500 hours of and is now executive chef telrhein, hessische Bergstrasse, and Sachsen. sunshine during the growing season results in and general manager at The Ahr River flows a mere 15 miles from a terroir that many call “Mediterranean”—a cli- the Hotel Fauchère in Mil- the Eifel hills in the west before running into mate that allows for the full ripening of black ford, Pa. His major obses- Photo courtesyPhoto Jean of Stodden the Rhine in the northern reaches of the Mittel- grapes this far north. sion is German wines. Sommelier Journal 57 (VdP) to create a “grand cru” classification for German vineyards, has taken a firm hold in the Ahr. To qualify for Grosses Gewächs, the winery must be a member of the VdP, and the wine must be produced from a site designated as Erste Lage (“first site”) un- der a strict set of regu- lations, which current- ly include harvesting by hand, a minimum ripeness level equiva- lent to Spätlese, and a maximum yield of 50 hectares per hectoliter (about 3 tons per acre). The wine must be dry, and the ripeness level may not be indicated on the label. Riesling, Village of Dernau from “The wines are unique to me in that they Spätburgunder, and Frühburgunder are the vari- Meyer-Näkel vineyards. are grown on such steep slopes, similar to the etals approved for the Ahr, and there are current- Mosel, and in slate, which is so different from ly 13 approved Erste Lagen. A Grosses Gewächs the Pfalz, Rheingau, and Baden, where so many bottling is embossed with the Erste Lage logo of the Pinot Noirs of Germany come from,” says and carries the VdP capsule. Jeff Marazoni, operations manager of a lead- ing German-wine importer, Rudi Wiest Selec- tions. “Being the small size that the region is,” Red grapes he adds, “the idea of growth is very limited, but As of 2006, 88% of Ahr vineyards were introducing the Pinot Noirs of the Ahr to the planted to red varietals. Spätburgunder, literally United States is certainly an opportunity; as in “late Burgundy,” is the leader with 62% of total most presentations, it is an educational experi- plantings. Next is Portugieser at 9%, much of ence for the audience.” it grown for cooperatives to produce unexciting wines or to stretch other red grapes in blends. When Portugieser is produced with a focus on Classification system quality, however, as in Weingut Deutzerhof’s Al- Considering the complexity of the German fred C. bottling, it can change your perception appellation system, the Ahr is a rather simple re- of the grape. Frühburgunder (“early Burgundy”) gion to comprehend (see box). In order from broad- ranks as the third-most-planted red grape in the est to most specific, a German vineyard is clas- Ahr, at 6%. Although quantitatively less impor- sified by Anbaugebiet (region), Bereich (district), tant than Portugieser, it has a greater impact on Grosslage (large site), Ort (village), and Einzellage the region’s reputation. While Portugieser plant- (individual site). The Anbaugebiet known as the ings decreased in acreage by 12% from 2004 to Ahr has only one Bereich, Walporzheim-Ahrtal, 2006, Frühburgunder’s increased by 36%. which includes only one Grosslage, Klosterberg. Frühburgunder is an early-flowering and Compare this to the eight Bereichen of Baden or early-ripening mutation of Pinot Noir that is the 25 Grosslagen of the Pfalz. And of Germany’s known as Pinot Noir Précoce in Burgundy, 2,600 Einzellagen, the Ahr has only 43. where it is commingled with other clones. In The new Grosses Gewächs system, devised Germany, on the other hand, Frühburgunder by the Verband Deutscher Prädikatsweingüter has been grown separately from Spätburgunder courtesyPhoto of Meyer-Näkel 58 January 31, 2010 the ahr for at least 150 years. Also known as Pinot Mad- eleine and Clevner in certain areas of Germany, this variety had all but disappeared by 1985. The list of wineries that have since taken an inter- est in planting Frühburgunder should speak for the grape’s potential: Schloss Proschwitz, Fürst, Knipser, and Graf Adelmann, not to men- tion most of the top producers in the Ahr. As of 2006, Frühburgunder occupied about 600 acres in Germany—up from 304 acres in 2001—in- cluding 84 acres in the Ahr. Frühburgunder vines go through most of their maturation phases two to three weeks ear- lier than Spätburgunder does, which offers ad- vantages in a northern climate, but creates prob- lems of its own. The early budbreak and early flowering make Frühburgunder much more susceptible to spring frosts, the early veraison makes it an obvious target for birds, and bees like it because it is the first to gain sugar content. and barrique aging, he was virtually alone in the Gerd and Alexander Its early ripening can also hinder flavor develop- Ahr—until the press started tasting his wines. Stodden. ment. Frühburgunder is a low-volume producer The same could be said for another trendsetter, that truly shows its stuff at less than 1 ton per Jean Stodden’s Gerd Stodden, who was the first acre—the same as grand cru Burgundy. Obvi- to begin green-harvesting in the early 1990s. ously, producers must see an amazing potential The top-quality wines are now aged largely to justify taking these risks. Although the wine in new French and German oak barrels. Al- is similar to Spätburgunder, it shows lower acid- though they still show a strong sense of terroir ity and finer tannins, with more violet-floral aro- in their perfume and relatively light color, and matics and more powdered-mineral notes. What their structure still leans more toward acidity vintners give up in structure they make up for than tannin, the intensity of oak can range from in aromatic broadness. complementary to overbearing. Spätburgunder is the clear leader, but many growers are equally excited about their Frühburgunders. The for- Recent history mer wines are defined more by their intense, key producers Although the Ahr has been making red slatey minerality and fine balance and struc- wines for centuries, they were often denigrated ture; the latter’s small, thick-skinned berries Jean Stodden Rotweinstrasse 7-9 as Ahrbleichert—literally, “Ahr bleached”—be- produce darker wines with more voluptuous 53506 Rech cause of their incredibly thin color from short and velvety tannins.