Wunderwein: German Pinot Noir Part 2!!!
10/25/2024
As seen in the previous article Part 1, the map above doesn’t show all the regions in France where Pinot Noir is grown ( the Jura & Loire to name a few). The idea is more to show how much is grown in Germany for well over 1000 years, being the third largest producer worldwide after the USA and France. We’ll be looking at Pinots from different regions in Germany, where with climate change, being in too cool a climate is no longer an issue. We will look at different producers from some of the regions we featured before, along with new regions Franken and the Mosel.
As seen in the map above, Baden is Germany's longest wine region and main Pinot Noir region. As with any very large wine region, there are varying soil types but the main one is limestone to the north and volcanic to the south. These produce wines of great power and concentration but also elegance and finesse. In Part 1,we had looked at the southern volcanic region of Kaiserstuhl, with producer Dr. Heger. In Part 2 and farther north in the Ortenau district across from Selestat, we have the famed Pinots from Enderle and Moll. As per the importer Stephen from Vom Boden: "Farming some of the oldest vines in Baden, the team crafts complex, earthy and superbly detailed Pinot Noirs; they are one of the first German red wine producers to emphasize lightness, transparency, finesse and are the benchmark producer for natural, Burgundy-esque German Pinot Noir, period! " We are pleased to offer their "premier cru" Liason bottling from 50 year old vines on sandstone and limestone.
Heading northeast from southern Baden past the Stuttgart region, we come to the well known region of Franken directly to the east of Frankfurt by the city of Wurzburg. Following along the shores of the winding, snake like Main river, Franken is mainly known for its white grape Silvaner bottled in the signature squat shaped Bocksbeutel. The Leipold family is one such producer known for their Silvaners that also produces wonderful Pinot Noir near the town of Volkach on its signature shell limestone soil. Young Peter who took over his family winery about 5 years ago after stints with Liger Belair in Burgundy and Keller in the Rheinhessen is definitely on the list of up and coming producers to watch. While you're at it, pick up a bottle of his Silvaner Kabinett Trocken (not in Bocksbeutel) as a palate cleanser/quencher!
Moving directly north of Alsace and due southeast from Franken, we arrive at the Pfalz, Germany's second largest wine growing region and one of Germany’s warmest. Like Baden, winters in the Pfalz are mild, and the area notably averages 1800 hours of sunshine a year. The hot sun of the Pfalz is counteracted by the gentle slopes of the Palatinate Forest, leading to a mild climate ideal for wine production. Although technically the largest producer of Riesling, it is also known for it's Burgundian varietals. Like it's southern neighbor Alsace, the Pfalz hosts a plethora of soil types: sandstone, limestone, basalt, loess, loam, gravel, red slate and clay. Our Pfalz producer Leiner is located in the Kalmit nature preserve in the southern Pfalz southwest of Landau at the edge of the Pfalzerwald (Pfalz forest) about thirty minutes’ drive north of the Alsatian border. As per their distributor David Bowler, they produce only a modest 120,000 bottles of Riesling and Burgundian varieties; are Demeter-certified biodynamic; members of Slow Food; and most excitingly, recent inductees into Respekt, the exclusive and influential consortium of biodynamic winemakers in Germany, Austria and Northern Italy. We are pleased to offer their "Handwerk" Spatburgunder.
Continuing directly northwest from the Pfalz, we cross over into the Mosel, Germany's most famous wine growing region. As per a phenomenal article in Trink magazine about Pinot Noir in the Mosel by Christoff Raffelt, Spatburgunder had a long history in the Mosel for centuries until it was mysteriously banned (along with other planted red varieties) in 1934. "Yet earlier, in the 19th century, Spätburgunder had been important enough in the Mosel to receive its own version of the famous Prussian site map classifying Riesling sites. The steps that led to the repeal of the ban in 1986 are much clearer. A growing number of winegrowers, led by Ulli Stein from Bullay, had pushed authorities for the right to restore Pinot Noir to their vineyards, arguing that it was standard practice in other German winegrowing regions." We are pleased to offer a Pinot Noir from Daniel Fries in Winningen downstream near Koblenz where the river empties into the Rhine. A new addition to Vom Boden's portfolio, Fries only recently released his first vintage in 2019. Like Peter Leipold in Franken, Daniel also cut his teeth in Burgundy and Oregon; with De Montille in Meursault and Lingua Franca in Eola-Amity Hills. His "Pinot Noir Vom Schiefer" is an excellent example of Pinot grown on Mosel schist and of 20% whole cluster fermentation in used French oak.
We were hoping to have finally received Ulli Stein's "Redlight" from the Mosel but that will now be for Part 3 when it arrives later. In the meantime, as we are in the midst of an Indian Summer, we also suggest another Mosel Pinot Noir in rose form from Philip Lardot, former Clemens Busch and Ulli Stein apprentice who eventually set off on his own path. We hope you will enjoy this new sampling of Teutonic Spatburgunders!
-Prost! Giselle Hamburg
