Ahr Valley, small wine region (Anbaugebiet) in the Ahr river valley south of Bonn in Germany. The Ahr produces mainly red wine, with Pinot Noir its flagship, despite being Germany’s northernmost wine region. Large, rich centres of population nearby provide a ready market.
Towns: Ahrbrück. Dernau. | Rech. | Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler.
Terroir: The Ahr river is a western tributary of the Mittelrhein (Middle Rhine), just south of Bonn. The vineyards occupy steep slopes overlooking the river for around 10 miles (16 km).
Vineyard area: ha (1,000 acres). Two-thirds is Spätburgunder (Pinot Noir), Portugieser and other red grapes. One third is Riesling, Müller-Thugau and Kerner.
Grosslage (1): Klosterberg.
Wines: Red wines are predictably pale and thin given the latitude, and are hence often made distinctly sweet.
Wineries: Adeneuer. | Alfons Hostert (). | Burggarten (Neuenahr). | Deutzerhof (Mayschoss). | GEBR Bertram. | Jean Stodden. | JJ Adeneuer (Ahrweiler): | Kreuzberg. |Maibachfarm (Ahrweiler). | Max Schell). Meyer-Näkel. | Nelles. | Peter Kriechel (Ahrweiler), | Peter Lingen (Neuenahr). Stodden.
Gastronomy: The valley has highly prized sparagus. This, often served with boiled new potatoes and hollandaise sauce and a side of smoked ham or pork fillet.
Ahr vintages
2006 In 2006 the Ahr was Germany’s 10th biggest region out of 13 in terms of vineyard surface area in production with 548ha of vines out of a national total in production of 99,172ha. The total vineyard area was ha (88% white/12% red) and the main grapes were Spätburgunder (61%), Portugieser (9%) and Silvaner (7%). 2006 Ahr wine production In 2006 the Ahr produced 47,662hl at an average yield of 89.8hl/ha of which 91.1 % was QbA (the highest percentage in Germany), 8.5% was QmP and0.4% was tafelwein. Source: Deutscher Wine Statistik 2007/2008 (Deutsches Weininstitut), p.6 & 10.