Ahr First Growth # 4
Submitted by Barry’s Wine Notes & Memories
The Nelles estate is located in the commune of Heimersheim in the Ahr wine-growing region in Germany. The Nelles family has been involved in wine production for more than 500 years. Current owner Thomas Nelles served an apprenticeship in winemaking with Julius Wasem in Ingelheim, then worked at various estates including Adeneuer, before going on to study viticulture and fruit farming in Weinsberg. On completion of his studies, he took over the estate from his father in the early 1970’s. Soon after that, the manor house, which had been built in 1950, had to be demolished to make way for a road. When the Heimersheim co-operative merged with the Ahr Winzer E.G. co-operative in 1976, and gave up its production facility in Heimersheim, Nelles had the old co-operative buildings, except for the hotel, demolished, and rebuilt his estate on top of the old cellar. The vineyard area totals just on seven hectares, with holdings in the top-rated Burggarten and Landskrone (Heimersheim) sites, as well as in the Schieferlay and Sonnenberg (Bad Neuenahr) sites, which are however usually not stated on the labels. Wherever possible, the best red wines are not filtered before bottling.
