It's been in Germany since the Middle Ages, but got banned by the Nazis as a wicked 'foreign' import. It went through a domestic boom in popularity in the 1990s, but thirsty, discerning German consumers didn't leave any for the export markets. It is Spätburgunder, the German alias of Pinot Noir, and top German winemakers are using it to make world-class wines. We are delighted to help bring it to wider attention with a mixed case containing a few of our favourite examples.
Alexander Stodden uses the magical combination of steep slopes, low yields and some very old vines to craft exquisite Pinot Noir from the terraced slopes of the Ahr Valley, south of Bonn. His smallest plot is 12 square metres. His goal is to produce 'rich and concentrated wines of great freshness and finesse', and his top bottlings joust easily with Burgundy. 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.
The exceptionally scenic meanders of the Mosel River are home to some of Germany's greatest vineyards, famous for Riesling. In the words of Markus Molitor, Pinot Noir loves the same grand cru sites in which Riesling flourishes, and he should know - he is a master of both varieties, and easily the Mosel's leading Pinot producer. He scores his top bottlings with stars (to a maximum of 3) to denote quality, and he is his own toughest judge. His style is relatively rich, but he has been dialling down the amount of new oak. 'Great wines demand oak. But oak can mask nuance and terroir. It is always a balancing act'.
Franken doesn't trip off the tongue in a list of Germany's greatest wine regions, but it ought to. The Fürsts have been cultivating vines here since 1638, and the quality of their terroir has elevated their winery to one of Germany's greatest. Burgundy-trained Sebastian Fürst likes to use a significant proportion of whole clusters in his fermentations, which gives his wines a very different style from the other two growers we have featured in the case. Burgstadter is a village bottling, while Centgrafenberg is a GG (Grosses Gewächs, aka Grand Cru) from a steep, concave site above the River Main. It benefits both from reflected sunlight and the moderating effect of the river on temperatures, and grapes cultivated here achieve enormous depth and complexity. /NT
