Julia Bertram

Ahr | Dernau

For more than a century, Julia Bertram’s family has grown and made wine in the tiny, marginal Ahr Valley. When Julia took over the estate in 2017, she directed her focus first toward the cherished old family sites, where she organically farms a total of 6.8 hectares of precipitous slopes all planted to Spätburgunder (pinot noir, in German). “What makes our wines unique,” Julia explains, “is the combination of slate and Spätburgunder in such a northerly region.” Across the board, Julia’s wines impress with their slender elegance, their arresting coolness and clarity, and above all a precisely mapped sense of place.

Julia Bertram 2017 Rosenthal Spätburgunder

The Rosenthal vineyard is around the hill from the Ahrweiler Forstberg, which Julia considers a premier cru. Whereas the Forstberg is more sandy loam soils in the slate, the Rosenthal is pure Devonian slate with quartz. Here, Julia has 35-year old pinot, planted to “stuber”—a local Ahr clone of pinot noir. The grapes see a cold maceration, followed by ambient yeast fermentation which lasts about a week. After pressing the wine completes fermentation and ages in 300L German oak from the forest near Klingenberg in Churfranken, 50% of which is new. Elevage lasts approximately 15 months in barrel before the wine sees an additional 3 months in stainless steel. This is world-class pinot noir with few peers. It is a statement on the achievement of what this noble grape can show at these latitudes.

  • 2017
  • Pinot Noir
  • Germany
  • Ahr
  • Conversion Organic
  • Rosenthal
  • South
  • Devonian Slate with quartz
  • 15 months German oak barrel (50% new), 3 months stainless steel
  • Stainless steel, German oak barrel (50% new)
  • 0.2
  • 750 ml

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