At just 85km long, the Ahr river runs along a valley that’s home to arguably the finest Pinot Noir-producing region in Germany. One of the country’s smallest wine regions, the Ahr yielded about 6.1 million bottles a year on average from 2017-2022 (see ‘at a glance’ box, p66). The fervent local demand for Ahr Spätburgunder (Pinot Noir) means that, frustratingly for Pinot lovers around the globe, only meagre quantities find their way onto the export market. The region takes its name from the Ahr, a winding, twisting tributary of the Rhine, better described on most days as a creek. But a devastating flood in July 2021 transformed this diminutive river into one of Germany’s most catastrophic natural disasters (pictured, p69), overshadowing the fame of the region’s wines. More than 130 people perished in the Ahr valley and all but a handful of the region’s 42 wine producers (see box, p66) suffered flood damage, many losing their homes and wineries entirely.
Deadly floods are not unfamiliar in this narrow valley, where villages are anchored near the rivers. ‘Everyone knows a great flood happens here every 100 years,’ says Meike Näkel who, with her sister Dörte, runs Weingut Meyer-Näkel (see ‘producers to know’, p67). The flood destroyed their winery, along with most of their 2020 vintage.
Climate change has exacerbated incidents of flooding and other extreme weather in the region, explains Näkel. And it has made the weather much harder to predict. ‘We know there will be a next flood and perhaps sooner than in 100 years,’ says Näkel.
SAVED BY THE SLOPES
Three years after the flood, the valley is still an
