Wine Box Meyer Nakel

Meyer Nakel is the winery that made red wine history in the northwestern border of German viticulture. Werner Näkel, in the early 1980s, revolutionized the way Pinot Noir was produced in the region, and brought the winery to high levels of quality and celebrity. Today the winery is led by Dörte and Meike Näkel, Werner's daughters, who continue on the important path set by their father.

The company is based in Dernau, in the Ahr valley. The name comes from the Celtic word “Aha,” meaning water. Here it makes its way into the Ahr Mountains in a deep and steep gorge with craggy rocks and clefts. Not only a wild and romantic sight, but also the base for red wine cultivation in the “far north” of viticulture. Pinot Noir is able to reflect these very special and individual terroirs in an extremely distinctive way, with fruit and fullness sometimes to the fore, and at other times with more minerality and herbaceous spiciness.

This box contains three interpretations but from the same vintage, 2022, celebrated as one of the best: 

- Spätburgunder 2022: the grapes are harvested by hand, transported to the winery in small crates, destemmed very gently and then fermented with the skins and natural yeasts for 18 days. The wine was further aged for 12 months on the fine lees in used barriques. A young but traditional wine with fine tannins, exciting acidity and good substance and persistence.

- Ahrweiler "Silberberg" 2022: for this wine, the grapes are harvested from the Silberberg vineyard in Ahrweiler with a 100% steep slope and a southern exposure at an altitude of 110 and 180 meters above sea level. Here there is the meeting of soils with a good amount of loess and lehm, characteristic of the lower Ahr valley, and soils with a predominance of slate and grovacca, which characterize the upper part of the valley. The character of the wines reflects the structural complexity of the vineyard. Indeed, the Pinot Noirs grown here are full of character and fruit, from the grovacca soils, and have a complex body that comes instead from the loess soils.

- Ahrweiler "Grauwacke" 2022: the steep slopes surrounding Ahrweiler, which are characterized by greywacke rock (a sediment of dark gray or grayish-green, very hard sandstone debris), are very labor-intensive and provide the ideal conditions for obtaining from this grape variety a balanced combination of color, fruit and Burgundy bouquet. Only a long period of ripening on the vine gives the typical aroma and elegant acid and tannic structure. The greywacke and slate soils of the Ahr give Pinot Noir a distinctive, unparalleled minerality that makes it a unique wine. Intense nose, developed on dark notes and small red fruits. Savory mouthfeel, and evident and lively tannic texture of quality. The considerable structure adds matter and gives depth to a very snappy wine. Long persistence.