'Neither my father nor I ever planted a white vine', says Alexander Stodden proudly. At Jean Stodden it's all about Spätburgunder; with the magical combination of steep slopes, low yields and old vines, Alexander is able to craft exquisite Pinot Noir from the terraced slopes of the Ahr Valley, just south of Bonn. His goal is to produce 'rich and concentrated wines of great freshness and finesse', and his top bottlings joust easily with the very best of Burgundy.

2021 saw tragedy in the Ahr. On the night of 14 July, floods swept along the narrow gorges of the valley, destroying low-lying vineyards and wrecking Alexander's cellar. He considers himself 'blessed' by the friends and neighbours who descended on his cellar in the emotional days after, and who helped him salvage what he could. 2022 was kinder to the valley. A warm, successful summer led the way to a fine harvest and, at Stodden, a beautiful set of wines; we found the 2022s compelling to taste, and can't resist offering.  

While the classic Spätburgunder comes from mostly lower-lying sites, JS is a steep-site selection. Rech is a village bottling ('my Gevrey-Chambertin', says Alexander), from his home village where his best sites cluster. His single most emblematic site is on the Grosses Lage ('great site') Herrenberg, a 60-degree slope where old and ungrafted vines cling to the weathered slate, pictured above. Stodden's Herrenberg Grosses Gewächs is profound and very long, a true grand cru bottling. /NT