Region: Mosel, Germany
Varietal: Reisling
Tasting Notes: Aromas of clear citrus, exotic fruit, with discreet slate notes. Juicy, fresh acidity on the palate, yet delivered with a delicate subtleness. Slender body, low alcohol and a youthful, straightforward flow.
Pairing: German Rieslings pair well with a variety of foods, including Asian, Indian and, of course, German-style dishes. Mild Indian curries, slightly spicy Thai noodles, sashimi and sushi, grilled and poached white fish, scallops, gravlax, roast pork with mustard sauce and ham would be good with these wines. I suggest this Hot Mustard and Honey Glazed Chicken by Kay Chun and a cold bottle of the AJ Adam Riesling. It’s a match made in heaven!
About: Mosel is the most famous of Germany's 13 official wine regions, and also the third largest in terms of production. As with many German regions, it is most aasociated with a range of wine styles made from the Riesling grape variety, which covers around 62 percent of the vineyards.
The region follows the path of the Mosel river from its confluence with the Rhine river near Koblenz, upstream and south-west to Germany's border with Luxembourg and France. It experiences a very cool, northern continental climate, and its steep slopes are very effective in optimizing the vines' exposure to sun, facilitating the ripening of the grapes. The best sites also take advantage of the solar radiation reflecting off the rivers' surface and onto the vines, and the dark slate soil's ability to absorb heat during the day and radiate it back to the vines at night.
The best Mosel Riesling wines are some of the finest whites in the world.
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.
As Andreas tells it, “It was an area ripe for revitalization. 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.”
Harvest is always done by hand, with a heavy selection in the vineyards. The wines are fermented using only ambient yeasts. 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. 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.” -edited from Skurnik Wines
