Product information

A.J.Adam Dhroner Hofberg Auslese Riesling 2019

Riesling from Mosel-Saar-Ruwer, Mosel, Germany

$114

$109ea in any 3+
$104ea in any 6+
Closure: Cork

Description

AP 17.20 The 2019er Hofberg Auslese, as it is referred to on the consumer label, was made with clean fruit harvested at 98° Oechsle from the main hill of the vineyard, and was fermented down to fully sweet levels of residual sugar. It is slightly reductive at first and needs a few minutes in the glass to reveal its ripe and engaging nose of pineapple, candied grapefruit, apricot, pear puree, honey, raspberry, and smoke. The wine is superbly playful on the richly aromatic, honeyed, and sweet palate, and leaves a smooth yet ripe and candied zesty feel in the long and intense finish. This will prove a splendid sweet wine at maturity! 2029-2059

Jean Fisch & David Rayer, Mosel Fine Wines

In stock

Check out all of the wines by A.J.Adam

Why is this Wine so Yummy?

About A.J.Adam

Our winery in its current form has only existed since the 2000 vintage. After our grandparents lacked the family continuity after generations of viticulture, we grandsons have gradually given the winery new splendor and revived the vineyards of the Dhroner Hofberg. Forgotten, but still present was the monopoly site Dhroner Häs’chen. The steep terraces of the Mosel bank pile up powerfully. With the 2014 vintage, the time had come: our portfolio of sites was expanded by one site in sole ownership.

Just south of Piesport in a small side valley lies the steep, south-facing vineyards of Dhron, named for a tributary of the Mosel. The Dhronerthal (Dhron Valley) is a small tributary of the Mosel, running south, just after Piesport. The steep, southwest facing Hofberg was given the top rating in Clotten’s 1868 Vineyard maps. In the 1950s and ‘60s, the wines of Dhron Hofberg were famous, gracing the tables of fine restaurants. In the 1970s and ’80s, the new generation started to leave the vineyards and move to cities – a generation of Moslaners left their birthrights and many famous but small vineyards were left untended and became relics of the past.  Growers in the village abandoned winemaking for work in larger cities, including Andreas’ parents. Adam re-started his family estate while still studying at Geisenheim University and interning at some of the great estates in Germany – Heymann-Löwenstein in the Wininngen, St. Urbans-Hof in Leiwen, and Van Volxem in the Saar.  His first official vintage was in 2000 when he was just 21 years old, working a single hectare that was owned and farmed by his grandfather.

It was an area ripe for revitalization, as Andreas tells it: expanding with vineyard land in the Hofberg was “almost free” he says, paying less than 5 euros per square meter. “The sites were steep and very hard to work, so the land was very inexpensive. There was no demand because everyone had abandoned vineyards and Dhron didn’t have a famous name like Würtzgarten.”  Andreas Adam is almost single-handedly responsible for bringing the Dhroner Hofberg back to its former status as one of the great Grand Crus of the Mosel.

Joined by his younger sister Barbara in 2013, after her graduation from Geisenheim and a stint at Keller in Rheinhessen, the estate has taken its place as one of the very finest estates in the Mosel. The two siblings work side by side and are responsible for vineyards and cellar together. Andreas & Barbara farm 45 separate parcels on the Hofberg, Häs’chen and Goldtröpfchen in Piesport, in a full spectrum of styles from dry to sweet. Recently they acquired vineyards in Häs’chen (.25ha) and additional land in the Piesporter Goldtröpfchen, specifically a site called Laychen. “Lay” is the old word for slate, and “chen” is the diminutive, referring to the small, broken slate soils here. The small new section of 700 square meters in Laychen was planted in 1908 and is completely ungrafted.

In the Vineyard

Andreas says of his philosophy: “I sustain my vineyards by intensive soil work to bring out the essential nutrients up from the primary rock, the natural compost of a vineyard. This completion of the bond between elemental soil and the work of the vintner is another piece in the puzzle of terroir… I think in Germany we see terroir as a unity of grape, climate, soil, and the mentality of the person who works the vineyard. But the essence of that mentality is a knowledge that the geology of his terrain indeed creates the flavors in the grapes which grow there.”

Vineyard area: 5 hectares

Drhoner-Hofberg

The Hofberg is not a classical Mosel wine location but rather a location in the Dhron valley. The south and south-west facing valley parcels are shaped by the last kilometres of the stream “Dhronbach” before entering the Mosel. Cool and fresh winds coming from the nearby Hunsrück determine the climate of these parcels. When the vines have already started to bloom at the parcels closer to the Mosel, nature needs a few more days to reach the colder Hofberg. We’re growing our Riesling and Pinot Noir grapes on grey, rocky slate that’s streaked with ferric oxide. We’re especially fond and proud of our old vines in the Hofberg valley. Our parcels have been spared from land consolidation which allowed us to keep a steep terrace culture with dry walls that enables a good biodiversity of flora and fauna that’s typical for the river landscape.

Dhroner-Häs’chen – Monopole.

Winemaking on a miniature scale but absolutely precious for our location portfolio. The Dhroner Häs’chen, a location that is entirely in our posession, measures only 2,677 qm. The terraces are steep and almost monumentally reaching for the sky. Extreme heat and direct sunlight are unknown to the Häs’chen. Facing east, this location is especially well situated during the growing impact of the climate change. Ungrafted Riesling vines from the 1930s create delicate, aromatic wines that radiate an inner balance. weathered Devonian slate.

 

Piesporter Goldtröpfchen

An amphitheater for Riesling vines. Vines as far as the eye can see, from young to ancient. Most vineyards have been replanted during the land consolidation in the 90s. Just a few old parcels remain untouched and left in their original state. Since 2009, one of those parcels with partly ungrafted vines aged up to 110 years, located above the village Ferres/Piesport, is part of our vineyard portfolio. A streak of woodland above the Piesporter Goldtröpfchen secures the water supply for the vineyards below. The slate differs from the Dhron valley, as it’s more weathered and reaching deeper into the ground. The location is warm, allowing us to grow rosemary, lavender and wallflower on the site. Our wines from Piesport are powerful, wild at youth and often times present themselves with dark fruit.

In the Winery

Harvest is always done by hand, with a heavy selection in the vineyards. The wines are fermented using only ambient yeasts in old fuder (around 1000 liters) and halbfuder (around 500 liters) and stainless steel. The wines are often left in contact with the lees for an extended period of time after natural fermentation, but nothing is done by rote at the estate.

There are no additions of any kind: no cultured yeast, enzymes and no süssreserve.

The 2019 Vintage at A.J.Adam

Andreas Adam finds 2019 a fascinating vintage, but one which was not as easy as 2018: “The weather proved a real roller-coaster in 2019. We had some frosts in early May, and then had some extreme temperatures during summer. The grapes were already getting ripe by mid-September. We have the chance to run a comparatively small operation with an 8 to 10-people-strong harvesting team all coming from the village. This means that we are quite flexible and were able to start earlier than expected at first. As usual, we started with our Spätburgunder for the Rosé and Riesling for our Estate wines, as well as grapes for our Kabinett wines with exciting acidity and minerality. As of September 20, the weather changed and rain dampened our mood. We decided to continue our harvest only under good conditions, i.e. when it did not rain, and this meant that we had full days of harvest in 2019. Selections were essential to harvest healthy grapes for our top dry wines. This had an impact on our yields but the effort was worth it! We were also able to produce many different bottlings of noble-sweet wines, The Auslese wines are clear and dense, and have a beautiful acidity. They will age gracefully. For me, there is direct comparison with any other vintage. The wines are self-contained somewhat stronger, and profound and fruity.”

The Estate was able to produce its usual portfolio, right up to a Hofberg BA. Due to the smaller yields (only 45 hl/ha), and the difficult weather during harvest, it did however not produce any Spätlese or Auslese from the Häs’chen and Goldtröpfchen, and focused its attention to the Hofberg, out of which it produced a Spätlese, three different Auslese, and a BA. The lockdown period created issues for bottling, as Andreas Adam recalls: “We were not sure to get the corks and bottles, could people come and help for the operations. Eventually, we were able to solve this issue by the end of April, and the 2019 vintage was eventually bottled.” In addition to the 2019er wines, the Estate also released two special wines from the 2018 vintage, a Hofberg Réserve, which was matured a year longer on its yeasts in Fuder, and a Hofberg Eiswein, which was harvested on January 20, 2019.

On the front news, the Estate has just been confirmed as a new member of the VDP Mosel a few weeks ago. Consequently, its wines will carry the VDP logo as of the 2020 vintage.

The A.J. Adam Estate produced another stunning collection, overcoming all the meteorological difficulties during the growing and harvest period. There are many highlights in every category. While the sweet and noble-sweet wines are truly remarkable, dare we write “as usual,” we feel that it is in the dry, off-dry, and Kabinett register that the Estate proved particularly successful in 2019. These wines, in particular those from the Häs’chen, are stellar and combine freshness with incredible depth and style. Standouts are clearly the off-dry in der Sängerei and the Häs’chen Kabinett. In addition, the two recently released 2018s (the Réserve and Eiswein) are also huge successes. This is a huge vintage at this fine address and wine lovers are well advised to stock up on their favorites!

Mosel Fine Wines

Where in the World is A.J.Adam?

A.J Adam’s home base is in Neumagen-Dhron on the Dhron river that runs off the Mosel in the horseshoe below Piesport. Here you’ll find their Holfberg vineyards. They also own the monopole Häs’chen and plots in Piesporter.

Click to view the interactive VDP map
Map by Fernando Beteta, MS @fernandobeteta on Twitter

 

94 Points

AP 17.20 The 2019er Hofberg Auslese, as it is referred to on the consumer label, was made with clean fruit harvested at 98° Oechsle from the main hill of the vineyard, and was fermented down to fully sweet levels of residual sugar. It is slightly reductive at first and needs a few minutes in the glass to reveal its ripe and engaging nose of pineapple, candied grapefruit, apricot, pear puree, honey, raspberry, and smoke. The wine is superbly playful on the richly aromatic, honeyed, and sweet palate, and leaves a smooth yet ripe and candied zesty feel in the long and intense finish. This will prove a splendid sweet wine at maturity! 2029-2059

Jean Fisch & David Rayer, Mosel Fine Wines

Where in the world does the magic happen?

Weingut A. J. Adam, Metschert 14, Neumagen-Dhron 54347 Neumagen-Dhron, Germany

Mosel
Mosel-Saar-Ruwer
Germany