Have you ever heard of the Ahr? Unless you are German, a German wine connoisseur, or from Benelux, Singapore or Japan, I would bet dollars to doughnuts that you haven't.

[I've never used that phrase "dollars to doughnuts" before. What the heck does that mean? Am I getting to that age where people start using whacko phrases?]

Though I love many wines from Germany, I hadn't heard of the Ahr either, until just a few weeks before Zoli and left for our trip to Berlin and driving around Germany. Since we were flying home from the Köln/Bonn airport, I suggested that we spend a day or two exploring Germany's wine regions, which stretch more or less from the center of Germany's western border to the southern part of the border. (They are inward from the border, but around there.) We'd been to the Rheingau, and were curious about other regions.

During my research, I read about the Ahr, Germany's northernmost wine region. At 560 hectares (1,250 acres), it is also one of the smallest. What really excited me about the Ahr was that Spätburgunder (pinot noir) is grown there. We'd tried a few before and loved them, but they were from a different region. As it turns out, pinot noir from the Ahr can rival some of the best from Burgundy.

Unfortunately, it proved difficult to find much tourist information in English online, so we turned to our German friend Achim, one of the partners of Nectar Wine Lounge in San Francisco, a place we frequented so often when we lived there that we referred to it as our living room. Achim pointed us to a few wineries known for excellent wines, and we were able to take it from there to set up appointments with J.J. Adeneuer  in Ahrweiler and Jean Stodden in Rech/Ahr. On Achim's recommendation, we also had lunch at the Hofgarten related to wine producer Meyer-Näkel (who we also popped in on after lunch to pick up a couple bottles of his Frühburgunder). Many, many thanks to Achim for all the tips!

Visiting a winery in Europe is usually a bit of a production, often lasting an hour and sometimes longer if you tour the caves. It is much more intimate than wine tasting in California in that you may meet with the winemaker him- or herself, you will taste many different wines and vintages, you may be served some little nibbles, you will learn about the history of the winery and its methods of production, and you will also learn about the region. Sometimes there is a fee for all of this (though usually waived if you buy wine), but the knowledge gained is invaluable if you are passionate about this kind of thing. J.J. Adeneuer and Jean Stodden were no exception, and we tasted countless wines with these two informative gentlemen. Fortunately they had spit buckets, or we would have been passed out underneath the tables about halfway through! (When tasting a lot of wine, it is best to spit the wine out so that (a) you don't get completely hammered, and (b) you can still taste the differences between all the wines. That said, you will want to swallow some of the wines in order to taste their finish, especially if you find a wine truly beautiful upon tasting it. I didn't spit nearly enough at J.J. Adeneuer and wound up with a splitting headache by the time I left. :-( )

It was at the Adeneuer cellar that we tried our first Frühburgunder, which is a mutation of pinot noir that is harvested earlier than Spätburgunder. Apparently there is another mutation that is harvested late in the season as well (this is not a late harvest dessert wine; late harvest in this sense simple refers to to time at which the fruit is harvested compared to other wines). Pinot Noir is known as a very difficult wine to grow. It has a thin skin, so it is very susceptible to damage, and it is also finicky about where it is grown. Frühburgunder is even trickier, and only 130 hectares are grown in all of Germany.

We learned plenty from Mr. Stodden, too. We were very interested in knowing how the Ahr can produce red wine, let alone such beautiful red wine, at such a northern latitude. To put it in perspective, it is at about the same latitude as southern Canada. Several factors make this possible:

• First, the soils are mostly slate, but also graywacke and volcanic, which retain heat.
• Second, the Ahr river and the Eifel mountain range create the warm yet moderate microclimate ideal for pinot noir.
• Finally, because the region is so far to the north, the days are long, but the sun is not so intense as in France's Burgundy region. Therefore the grapes are coddled in consistent warmth throughout the long days, and enjoy the cool nights that pinot likes so much.

Mr. Stodden also taught us a bit about the market for Ahr wines. Only 5% of his wines are exported (to the Benelux countries, Japan, and Singapore), and 95% are consumed in Germany. Of the wine sold in Germany, it is mostly restaurants that buy it, but also some private buyers. I would guess that these figures are similar for other producers, as wine production in the region is quite small. We also discussed how the German palate is changing; he thinks this in large part due to higher quality and more sophisticated food being served in restaurants. Around 15% of customers look for high quality wines at restaurants, a percentage that has grown over the past 15 years. Also, whereas most German consumers want young wines, the Ahr's wines are best aged. Of the wines I tasted, I would say this is particularly true of Mr. Stodden's wines, which are quite acidic young, but I think excellently constructed.

We brought home a case of wine from our trip, and our two real scores included a 2004 Spätburgunder produced from 100-year-old vines (not clones), and a bottle of 10-year-old Alter Trester (a "grappa" made from pinot noir grapes). We'll have to age the 2004 a bit - it is a very special wine and deserves it - but I am looking forward to sipping the Alter Trester after dinner when the weather turns cold.  

Before I wrap up this post, I have just a few words about food and lodging in the Ahr:

• It is an expensive region. Located near some of Germany's richest cities, wines and nice accommodations don't come that cheap. There are many gasthaus-type places to stay, but we found them to be of not-so-great quality for the price. After a lot of driving around and asking questions, we finally found the Hotel Lochmühle, a perfectly nice hotel at only 65 euros.
• Restaurants close early. Head out for food early unless you want to be stuck with pizza five villages away from where you are staying.
• Though we didn't try it, Mr. Stodden recommended Steinhauer as an excellent restaurant and most famous in the area; he said it is manned by one of Germany's top chefs. I'm having trouble finding English information about this online, so if anyone knows anything about it, please share your information.
•  The Hofgarten Meyer-Näkel (pictured above) was great, and served delicious, typical local cuisine. I had a goulash with spaetzle and Zoli had - well, it tasted better than it sounds - bread topped with wild boar meat and fat. The restaurant has a comfy, flower-filled courtyard, prowled by the world's fattest cat. Too bad I didn't get a picture of it; I think he/she has sampled a quite a few local specialties from sympathetic customers!

• Stodden makes only 500 - 600 liters (666 - 800 bottles) of the 100-year-old vine wine that we bought, so we are very excited to have it.
• All the grapes in the Ahr are picked by hand. Since they are grown on steep, steep hillsides, it wouldn't be possible to use any machinery. This is another reason why the wines are pricey.