A.J. Adam - A new Riesling on the Horizon
5/22/2008 -
The amount of high quality wine coming out of Germany right now is at an all time high especially considering that Germany only produces 1% of all the wine in the world. I still have not tasted every great producer . . .yet. So every now and then a producer will pop up on my radar and now that producer is A.J. Adam from the small village of Dhron in the Mosel. What is amazing about this estate is that Adam is a part-timer and he also works at the famous Lower Mosel Estate, Heymann-Lowenstein. One of his biggest influences is Roman Niewodniczanski at Van Volxem. The family resemblance is there as these are mostly done in the drier style and like Van Volxem the quantites are so small they are bordering on microscopic. He has 1 hectare he farms and his average annual production in just a little north of 500 cases. Romanee-Conti and Screaming Eagle territory production numbers here. But not RC and Screagle prices mind you.
The wine in question I am raving about is the 2005 A.J. Hofberg Reserve which I enjoyed the other night and I will be quickly squirreling away many of these in my cellar. My first thought was Leflaive meets Clemens-Busch in that there is a Batard-like richness to this wine on a lithe, elegant and dry frame a la Clemens Busch. His main site is called the Dhronhofberger and is not front and center among the Mosel Grand Cru's and Andreas Adam is fine with that. The soil is weather slate with a little clay under that. The yields are low and the wine is fermented in a cool area while the wild yeasts do their work. He hand harvests his organic vineyard and also has extended lees contact (4 normal months on the regular lees and then six more months on the fine lees. This is old-school as old-school can get. The flavors these soils give, as I can attest to, are spice, exotic fruit and more spice. Due to the character of the vintage in 2005 this had a creaminess that was to die for. But there is also a juicy explosion of pit fruits which resonates on the finish. As the wine opens in the glass it gets spicier and more exotic and adds layers of complexity. The finish is never-ending and has a Donnhoff-like dissolve. To end this rave I would have to quote Terry Thiese and say "They taste deep and leesy, and they never seem sweet and almost never seem dry, even when they are in fact either sweet or dry. Flavors are both thick and opalescent, and one is aware of a sense of stature: this is immediate."
