The J. J. Adeneuer estate is located in the town of Neuenahr-Ahrweiler in the Ahr wine-growing region in Germany. It has been owned by the family for more than 500 years. The brothers Frank and Marc Adeneuer took over the business from their aunt in 1984. Sustainable vineyard practices are implemented, with practically no herbicides being used. Some 3.000 to 4.000 bails of hay are brought into the vineyards each year to improve the water retention capacity of the soils, and to retain the important layer of fertile topsoil. The vineyard area totals nine hectares, and include holdings in the following sites: Rosenthal (Ahrweiler); Schieferlay and Sonnenberg (Neuenahr) and Gärkammer (monopole holding) in Walporzheim. They are planted exclusively with red varieties: Pinot Noir (7,2 ha), Pinot Madeleine (0,9 ha), Portugieser (0,5 ha) and Dornfelder (0,5 ha). Natural yeasts have been used for fermentation since 2001, and wines are not filtered before bottling. The estate is a member of the VDP (Verband deutscher Prädikats- und Qualitäts-Weingüter) association.
While the wines of the 2000 vintage are often characterised quite strongly by dominant oak tannins, they also in most cases obviously have sufficient structure and fruit to predict a further positive development. They represent an exceptional achievement, which appears to have improved on the wines of the 1999 vintage, which theoretically was the better year. It seems that 2000 was specifically the year of the early clone of Pinot Noir, the Frühburgunder – while this is a very reasonably priced quality wine, without a vineyard site being mentioned on the label, it is one of the stars of the vintage. Quite generally speaking one must mention that the prices here have remained very reasonable. A big compliment to the Adeneuers!
The two wines presented were only submitted late, and at the time of the tasting were the only wines still available from the 1999 vintage. Apart from the very good Dornfelder, we evaluated the powerful Nr. 1, whose extract seems just a bit low to balance the enormously high alcohol level. Time will tell. A Gärkammer Auslese Goldkapsel, tasted at the winery, demonstrates impressively the potential of this vineyard site (Rating 90-92 points).
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