The winery is located in the municipality of Ungstein (Mittelhaardt-Deutsche Weinstraße area) in the German wine-growing region of
Pfalz. The family's ancestors come from Switzerland. After a generation in Alsace, Philipp Bär settled in Ungstein in 1590 (the "h" only entered the name at the beginning of the 19th century). Until 1907, the wines were mainly sold to the trade as bulk wine. Until 1973, the grapes were delivered to the local winegrowers' cooperative, of which Helmut Bähr was also the first chairman from 1968 to 1972. His son Günter harvested the grapes himself for the first time with the 1973 vintage. Today, three generations work in the family business. In the 17th generation, Jürgen Bähr is the main person in charge after completing his training as a viticultural technician in 2004. The vineyards cover 22 hectares of vines in the single vineyard sites Bettelhaus,
Herrenberg,
Nussriegel, Osterberg and
Weilberg (Ungstein), Nonnengarten, Rittergarten and Steinberg (Bad Dürkheim), as well as Mandelgarten (Wachenheim). They are planted with the white wine varieties Riesling (one third of the area), Pinot Blanc, Pinot Gris, Chardonnay, Silvaner, Sauvignon Blanc, Müller-Thurgau, Huxelrebe, Kerner, Gewürztraminer, Scheurebe, Saphira and Morio-Muskat, as well as with the red wine varieties Pinot Noir, Portugieser, Dornfelder, St. Laurent, Cabernet Mitos, Cabernet Dorsa, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Acolon, Regent and Lagrein.
Depending on the vintage, up to 56 different wines are vinified, around 20 of which are only available in a relatively small quantity of between 800 and 2,000 bottles. The grapes are processed gently. The white must is fermented in a controlled manner by cooling so that as many fermentation aromas as possible are formed and preserved. The red wines are temperature-controlled vinified in special mash fermentation tanks and, depending on the grape variety, aged in stainless steel tanks, wooden barrels or barriques. The maturity of the wines determines the bottling and so it happens that sold-out wines are only replaced by the following vintage half a year later. With the 2000 vintage, the "JB" line was introduced. These are wines from strongly yield-reduced vineyards, which are vinified by Jürgen Bähr according to his own ideas. Bottle-fermented sparkling wines are also produced. About 95% of the average annual production of 180,000 litres of wine is sold to end consumers (with a good 2,000 regular customers).
