WTNs: Ahr you ready for a Spat?

I attended a blind tasting of Ahr Spätburgunder - which was fun. The prices of the wines, however, will raise some eyebrows.

Weingut Jean Stodden Spätburgunder Recher Herrenberg Grosses Gewächs 2007 - Rech, Ahr, c.55€; label
Nice and earthy and showing some very attractive lean Pinosity, but sadly showing quite a bit of oak. Good acid, crunchy red fruits, but again too much oak for me. Possibly very nice once the oak fades. Though since I've never had much exposure to Ahr, I have no idea how these age - but I would be surprised if they did decline very quickly.

WG Jean Stodden Spätburgunder Alte Reben 2007 - Rech, Ahr, c.80€; label
Lovely aroma of lingonberry, less oak than in the first glass but it does still have some influence of it, lovely lean Pinosity, slightly reminiscent of J-P Brun's. Bright, crunchy and savoury. Slight oak still, but not in annoying amounts. Lovely. But not 80€ lovely.

Weingut Deutzerhof Spätburgunder "Melchior C" 2007 - Mayschoss, Ahr, c.100€; label
This was another of my favourites (what cheap tastes I have!). This also had very pure Pinosity in a leaner style and it again reminded me of J-P Brun if he would have a slight touch of new oak. But the palate is richer in fruit and it has a tiny, but lovely quinine-like bitterness that made this very moreish. Very nice.

WG Deutzerhof Spätburgunder Altenaher Eck Grosses Gewächs 2007 - Mayschoss, Ahr, c.50€; label
Again this has pure pinosity, but no longer in such a lean style as the previous two wines. Instead, though recognizably Pinot, it has gamy and bloody aromas. Richer and less fragrant than most others in the line-up, but with moreish despite a bit of oak showing.

Weingut Meyer-Näkel Spätburgunder Dernauer Pfarrwingert 2008 - Dernau, Ahr, c.50€; label
This was the only producer I had heard of before, but the most famous isn't necessarily the best. I thought this showed more oak than the others, it was quite toasty and spicy yet lacked the sexy aromatics I like to see in the grape. It seemed more like an attempt at oaking Gamay than PN! Crunchy palate, gravelly and rugged but sadly shows too much oak on the finish. It seemed quite "international" in style.

WG Meyer-Näkel Spätburgunder Walpforzheimer Kräuterberg 2008 - Dernau, Ahr, c.70€; label
This IMO was the better of the two Meyer-Näkels. It wasn't terribly fragrant at first but with some air it beings to show some gravelly and lean Pinosity - not a very sexy style, but attractive (except, as in all of these, there is a touch of oak present). Crunchy fruit, some quinine bitterness, lean and quite nice.

Gernot & Heike Heinrich Pinot Noir 2007 - Burgenland, Austria; label
This was the first joker, an Austrian in the midst of Germans. And though I have written very positively on several of Heinrich's reds, I wasn't very keen on this one. It smelled more of hot chocolate than wine: an unpleasant combination of oak and ripeness. The palate also shows too much bitter oak.

Becker-Landgraf Spätburgunder Gau-Odernheimer Rosenberg 2006 - Rheinhessen
This was our second joker. Very pale, very pure, but strangely not very fragrant. Opens up to show a little bit of oak. From the colour and scent I was expecting a light wine, but instead this was one of the richest and densest wines of the evening. Good balance of all components: ripe fruit, crunchy acidity and minerals all make this very moreish.


It was a hugely interesting tasting with some very nice wines. But I do wonder why they are still so enamoured with oak? (This, of course, cannot possibly my handicap :rolleyes: ) I think a more serious problem than my oak aversion is that the prices simply are far too high. How many people will pay this much for admittedly good wines when you can get some GC Burgs for similar amounts?


To finish the tasting, we had a blind sweetie:
Willi Opitz OpitzOne 2004 which was ok but so super sweet that one can't say much else except that it had much of everything - including acidity - so it was fun and balanced in a perverse kind of way.


And while doing the dishes, our host opened up one more blind wine to help us work:
Barca Velha 1999 from Douro, which was really very nice. Already very approachable (this must not be the norm for a young Barca Velha?) and with cherry and sandalwood aromas leading me to believe it was some Tuscan from a warm year. Nice red fruits and crunch on the palate. Drink and hold.

[David M. Bueker]

Otto - we sign the sme tune this time!

If I go back to my one real tasting of Ahr Spatburgunder (fall 2003) I was amazed at how much oak they used and how high the prices were. The fact that you were not horrified indicates that they have moderated their approach to global deforestation, but unfortunately the savings on new barrels has not translated to the consumer. I see no value in German Pinot Noir, so depsite the fact that some of the wines are indeed attractive, I won't support the efforts of the producers.

It's really too bad, as the terroirs do appear to be worthy.

I too agree about the oak and the prices. I think that the latter are partly explained by the area's proximity to wealthy Köln and the slightly more distant Düsseldorf. Contrast that to the MSR region where IMO the wines have a lot more character and elegance but where many wine-growers, with obvious exceptions like Müller and J-J Prüm, struggle to make a decent living.

Otto, Thanks for the notes.

I love German Spätburgunder and have had a lot of fun uncovering producers over the years. I don't want to defend the high-prices or the heavy oak-usage, but only to offer some insight as to why these issues persist.

These are the very top-of-the-range wines from three of the blue-chip Ahr producers (Adeneuer and Nelles could be included in that group) and the prices reflect that. You can buy good wines from all of these guys for under 20€ and sometimes less than 10€. This is the range where I drink most of my wines these days because frankly, I cannot afford much more on my apprentice wage. The cheaper wines tend to have significantly less oak influence as one might expect.

The demand remains great in Germany and the Ahr in total is less than 600 ha. We have villages in the Pfalz with greater vineyard area than the whole Ahr combined. There really isn't much wine to go around and well-heeled Germans are often too happy to pay for good German Pinot Noir.

I agree about oak issue and agree that it has been reeled back in the last five years or so. I also don't think that using new barrique for Pinot Noir is unique to the Ahr. Too many high-end Pinots from Oregon, Burgundy, California, Germany, Wherever, are dominated by oak.

I wonder if the average customer for these wines (unlike you fine gents) has come to expect that particular style when forking over 80€ for Pinot Noir.

The biggest reason may be that Germany has had a bit of an inferiority complex when it comes to producing deep, structured, interesting red wine and as such has gone a little too far in emulating new-world wine styles in an attempt to defend what is being produced. A shame.

Cheers,
Bill

[David M. Bueker]

The biggest reason may be that Germany has had a bit of an inferiority complex when it comes to producing deep, structured, interesting red wine and as such has gone a little too far in emulating new-world wine styles in an attempt to defend what is being produced. A shame.

I would not say so much new world styles, as even at 20 or 30% new oak (typical for Burgundy) these wines are overoaked/underwined. Not to mention that there is plenty of new world pinot noir that sees only that much (or even less) new oak. It's not all 100% new oak gob-monsters.

The biggest reason may be that Germany has had a bit of an inferiority complex when it comes to producing deep, structured, interesting red wine and as such has gone a little too far in emulating new-world wine styles in an attempt to defend what is being produced. A shame.

I would not say so much new world styles, as even at 20 or 30% new oak (typical for Burgundy) these wines are overoaked/underwined. Not to mention that there is plenty of new world pinot noir that sees only that much (or even less) new oak. It's not all 100% new oak gob-monsters.

Hi David,

Alright, there may be oak-conscious producers in the new-world, but the image of modern high-end wine (which all three of these producers emulate) is that of wine matured for many months in new barrique. All of the Ahr wines above are made in 100% new barrique for 10-20 months except for the Meyer-Näkels which are 70% new for 16. There is of course, a lot more to oak than '100%' and 'new' and 'barrique' and I don't wan't to imply that it's as simple as that, only to give a possible reason for the style. I think that a Burgundian approach of wild-yeast ferments with a high-quality Pinot Noir clone from reduced yeilds in a good vintage, sans tannin-management techniques (like micro-ox) or de-acidification, without DAP and other nutrients, made in an oxidative style with 20-30% new oak (Limousin at that), minimal battonage and a little luck would yeild some very interesting and high-quality wines from the great terroir that these guys are working with. I'd love to see that wine made.

Cheers,
Bill