Among the many jobs of renowned German wine critic Stuart Pigott, Contributing Editor for JamesSuckling.com stands out. In April 2018, he published a most interesting report about recent German Spätburgunder/ Pinot Noir releases. I am reposting the article here, with my own pictures.
Stuart Pigott on facebook: Here is my big story for James Suckling about German pinot noir reds, an in-depth introduction to the results of the quantum leap that the nation's top producers achieved during the last decade. These wines are not cheap (small yields and a lot of precise hand work in the vineyard and cellar aren't compatible with low prices), but in comparison with Burgundy the prices look friendly. On top of that 2015, the current vintage, is the best to date! Great wines from Fritz Friedrich Wilhelm Becker, Sebastian Fürst, Joachim Heger, Julian Huber, Patrick Johner, Sabine Knipser, Shelter Winery and some amazing surprises like the Frühburgunders (a mutation of pinot noir unique to Germany) of Klaus Lüttmer in the ex-East!
Germany’s Wonderful Take on Pinot Noir
Saturday, April 21, 2018
Stuart Pigott/ JamesSuckling.com: The German pinot noir in my glass is the very wine that scored the highest among all the wines that were tasted last week. For a region that isn’t yet famous for pinot noir, Schweigen is already planted with almost 1,700 hectares of this grape varietal. Considering its concentration, silkiness and complexity, it was inevitable for Friedrich Becker Spätburgunder Pfalz Heydenreich GG 2013 to score a total of 97 points. However, I also knew that the rating might make the producer’s jaw drop and surprise readers who are not familiar with the producer Friedrich Becker in Schweigen of Pfalz.
In fact, Germany has 11,787 hectares of pinot noir, making it the world’s third-largest grower of this grape varietal — just behind France and the United States. However, many consumers around Planet Wine are only just waking up to the reality that German red wines are not all light and insipid as some outdated wine books may describe. From the vintages 2005 and 2007, I see a handful of pinot noirs that are worthy of more than 95 points and even more that deserve 90 points or higher.
A German Wine Revolution
This vast change was triggered by the winemaking revolution in the 1980s. The producers, such as Karl Heinz Johner of Bischoffingen, Bernhard Huber in Malterdingen and Rainer Lingenfelder of Grosskarlbach, were those who brought the red winemaking know-how from Burgundy and the New World to Germany. However, the revolution did not just produce wines which simply topped the feeble German red wines of the 1970s. Instead, these producers kept relentlessly pushing the limits in winemaking and adapting their techniques in the vineyard and cellars to the varying climatic situations and soil types. And now, the new wines are fruitful results that confirm their deeply held conviction that one day Germany would produce world-class pinot noir.
But isn’t Germany just way too cold to properly ripen pinot noir? Often associated with the crisp rieslings that the nation produces, Germany certainly tends to give the impression that it is a cool climate region. However, that might not be the case. “In the far southwest of Germany, where my winery is located, we have the climate that Burgundy had in the 1980s and early 1990s,” Bernhard Huber explained before his passing in June 2014. The weather statistics since the last turn of the century confirm his assertion about the effects of climate change. “In sites such as Schlossberg, we have limestone soils that seem to be what persuaded the Cistercian monks to bring pinot noir to our area from Burgundy during the Middle Ages,” he elaborated.
Huber was already making some of the best pinot noirs in Germany, and now, his son Julian continues his work. With a total score of 98 points, his breathtakingly deep and refined Bernhard Huber Spätburgunder Baden Schlossberg GG 2015 is the highest rated wine in this tasting report. What’s even more extraordinary is that Bernhard Huber gained everyone’s attention with its 1990 Reserve, which is a wine made in their garage! Today, Julian Huber works in a facility that his father had designed to optimize fermentation in open-topped tanks, which is rather similar to those that the top producers of Burgundy use. After the Hubers acquired the vineyard and did a complete replanting of the site, they produced the first vintage of this wine in 2004.
Rising Stars in the Region
There are many stories of other new Germany pinot noir stars as well. For instance, Meyer-Näkel from the village of Dernau, which is managed by the Näkel sisters Meike and Dörte. Owned and directed by Gunter Künstler, Franz Künstler in Hochheim is also one of the rising stars which budded from humble beginnings to domestic fame. Now, the winery is doing extremely well with its increasing export success. The rising prices for red Burgundy during the last decade have also helped these German wineries charge healthy prices and still come off as good value. And a good part of their profits is generally plowed back into purchasing new vineyards and better winemaking equipment, all to produce wines of outstanding quality.
Some German pinot noirs, such as those from Becker and Bernhard, could easily be mistaken for Burgundy due to the similarities they share in terms of both climate and soils. However, wines such as the 94-point Meyer-Näkel Spätburgunder Ahr Kräuterberg GG 2015 and the 96-point Künstler Spätburgunder Rheingau Höllenberg GG 2015 have very different personalities than the rest of the wines due to the geology of the vineyards. These vines grow in sites with rocky slate soils and are situated in much steeper slopes than any of the Grand Cru or Premier Cru sites of Burgundy. On top of that, they are located considerably further north. These factors give the Kräuterberg GG an intensely herbal character — kräuter is herbs in German — and imbue the Höllenberg GG with striking floral and blackcurrant notes.
Located in the Rheingau region, the Höllenberg site of Assmannshausen plays a crucial role in the backstory of red wine revolution in Germany. Between 1925 and 1959, the state domaine in Assmannshausen made a string of astonishingly rich and silky pinot noirs. Now, wines from the 1947, 1949 and 1959 vintages are not only a collector’s dream but also a delicious pleasure to taste. Some of these wines were made by Ewald Schug, the father of Californian pinot noir star producer Walter Schug. However, after Ewald Schug’s retirement, the wines of the Assmannshausen declined, and so did the other good German pinot noirs from the 1960s. Today, the Assmannshausen is part of the new pinot noir scene and its Höllenberg spätburgunder are the most consistent and impressive wines in the portfolio of Kloster Eberbach.
The big challenge for these rising German pinot noir isn’t getting the grapes ripen enough to make wines with a natural alcoholic content of 13 to 15 percent — like the typical red Burgundy — but rather getting enough fine tannins. “Above all we are looking for balance and elegance,” said Sebastian Fürst from the Fürst winery in Bürgstadt of the Franken region. Sebastian is now one of the leading red wine producers in the area, and his father Paul is known to be one of nation’s pinot pioneers.
At Fürst, pinot noir could also mean the grape varietal named frühburgunder, which is a mutation of the grape that ripens earlier and creates spicy aromas unique to Germany; you can find these bottled as a varietal wine and they’ve been producing these since the 1980s. Of course, the genetics are crucial too. “Switching to planting the fine and trés fine massal selections of pinot noir from Burgundy was all about getting more refinement,” Sebastian Fürst commented. And it seems to have worked because his super silky 2015 Schlossberg GG consists a good portion of this new varietal and it was rated 96 points.
Global Trends in Pinot Noirs
In recent years, the producers started picking earlier to create wines with brighter aromas, more acidity and better color. This movement in trend also includes using less new oak casks for aging. If you’re are one of our regular readers, you will see that this is not the case with other wine countries and regions such as Bordeaux, Spain and Australia. These particular changes in Germany’s winemaking can be considered as one of the global trends in the wine industry, where producers are aiming to make more sharply defined wines with much greater freshness. This is evident in the excellent 2015 vintage, which is arguably the best vintage for German pinot noir so far. Considering how hot and dry that the growing season was, the wines boast remarkable brightness and vitality.
It’s also interesting to note that the sommeliers and merchants around the world are waking up to the new wines. Currently, Japan is the most important export market for Fritz Becker Jr. of Friedrich Becker, and he explained that the Japanese market “really gets our wines, particularly the GGs, which are our top single-vineyard wines.” And a few months ago, in the cool wine bars of New York City, I kept seeing pinots from Winzerei Lüttmer, which is based in a gritty corner of Berlin. And of course, the very Lüttmer’s 2016 Frühburgunder S I came across achieved a score of 94 points, which justifies German pinot noir’s growing popularity. — Contributing Editor, Stuart Pigott
Stuart Pigott's List
Please go to Stuart Pigott/ JamesSuckling.com for tasting notes of the listed wines.
Bernhard Huber Spätburgunder Baden Schlossberg GG 2015
Prinz Spätburgunder Rheingau Hendelberg Reserve 2012
Bernhard Huber Spätburgunder Baden Bienenberg GG 2015
Chat Sauvage Spätburgunder Rheingau Rüdesheimer Drachenstein 2013
Fürst Spätburgunder Franken Hunsrück GG 2015
Fürst Spätburgunder Franken Schlossberg GG 2015
Künstler Spätburgunder Rheingau Höllenberg GG 2015
Shelter Winery Spätburgunder Baden 2015
Thörle Spätburgunder Rheinhessen Hölle 2015
Adeneuer Spätburgunder Ahr Gärkammer GG 2015
Bernhard Huber Spätburgunder Baden Sommerhalde GG 2015
Chat Sauvage Spätburgunder Rheingau Johannisberger Hölle 2013
Dautel Spätburgunder Würrtemberg Forstberg GG 2015
Dr. Heger Spätburgunder Baden Achkarrer Schlossberg GG 2015
Dr. Heger Spätburgunder Baden Vorderer Winklerberg GG 2015
Fürst Spätburgunder Franken Centgrafenberg GG 2015
Karl H. Johner Spätburgunder Baden SJ 2015
Künstler Spätburgunder Rheingau Reichestal GG 2015
Thörle Spätburgunder Rheinhessen Probstey 2015
Aldinger Spätburgunder Würrtemberg Lämmler GG 2015
Altenkirch Spätburgunder Rheingau Pfaffenwies Erstes Gewächs 2013
August Kesseler Spätburgunder Rheingau Cuvée Max 2014
Chat Sauvage Spätburgunder Rheingau Lorcher Kapellenberg 2012
Dautel Spätburgunder Würrtemberg Schupen GG 2015
Fürst Frühburgunder Franken R 2015
Jean Stodden Spätburgunder Ahr Rosenthal GG 2015
Karl H. Johner Spätburgunder Baden Bischoffinger Steinbuck 2015
Künstler Spätburgunder Rheingau Hochheim Stein 2015
Leitz Spätburgunder Rheingau Leitz-Becker Rothenberg 2009
Luckert Spätburgunder Franken Maustal GG 2015
Meyer-Näkel Spätburgunder Ahr Kräuterberg GG 2015
Schön Spätburgunder Rheingau Rüdesheimer Berg Roseneck Auslese 2015
Winzerhof Lüttmer Frühburgunder Saale-Unstrut S 2015
Adeneuer Spätburgunder Ahr Rosenthal GG 2015
Allendorf Spätburgunder Rheingau Höllenberg 2014
August Kesseler Spätburgunder Rheingau Cuvée Max 2013
Deutzerhof Spätburgunder Ahr Eck GG 2015
Fürst Spätburgunder Franken Bürgstädter Berg 2015
Fürst Spätburgunder Franken Klingenberger 2015
Gutzler Spätburgunder Rheinhessen Morstein GG 2014
Jean Stodden Spätburgunder Ahr Herrenberg GG 2015
Karl Haidle Spätburgunder Würrtemberg Burghalde GG 2015
Kloster Eberbach Spätburgunder Rheingau Höllenberg GG 2014
Künstler Spätburgunder Rheingau Assmannshausen 2015
Lützkendorf Spätburgunder Saale-Unstrut Hohe Gräte GG 2015
Meyer-Näkel Spätburgunder Ahr Pfarrwingert GG 2015
Meyer-Näkel Spätburgunder Ahr Silberberg GG 2015
Prinz Spätburgunder Rheingau Hendelberg 2014
Schön Spätburgunder Rheingau Rüdesheimer Berg Schlossberg Auslese Alte Reben 2015
Schön Spätburgunder Rheingau Rüdesheimer Drachenstein Auslese 2011
Thörle Spätburgunder Rheinhessen Hölle 2014
Thörle Spätburgunder Rheinhessen Saulheim Kalkstein 2015
Aldinger Spätburgunder Würrtemberg Marienglas GG 2015
Allendorf Spätburgunder Rheingau Quercus 2014
August Kesseler Spätburgunder Rheingau 2014
Bercher Spätburgunder Baden Feuerberg -Kesselberg GG 2015
Chat Sauvage Spätburgunder Rheingau Assmannshausen 2011
Chat Sauvage Spätburgunder Rheingau Lorcher Schlossberg 2013
Deutzerhof Spätburgunder Ahr Mönchberg GG 2015
Fürst Spätburgunder Franken Bürgstädter 2015
Geil Frühburgunder Rheinhessen Geyersberg 2015
Georg Müller Spätburgunder Rheingau Daniel 2015
Grafen Neipperg Spätburgunder Würrtemberg Schlossberg GG 2015
Jean Stodden Spätburgunder Ahr Handtberg GG 2015
Jean Stodden Spätburgunder Ahr Sonnenberg GG 2015
Karl H. Johner Spätburgunder Baden 2015
Kloster Eberbach Spätburgunder Rheingau Assmannshausen Höllenberg Mauerwein 2015
Kreuzberg Frühburgunder Ahr Hardtberg GG 2015
Kreuzberg Spätburgunder Ahr Silberberg GG 2015
Krone Spätburgunder Rheingau Assmanshäuser Höllenberg 2012
Leitz Spätburgunder Rheingau Leitz-Becker Rothenberg 2010
St. Antony Spätburgunder Rheinhessen Pinot Noir 2015
Thörle Spätburgunder Rheinhessen Probstey 2014
Wagner-Stempel Spätburgunder Rheinhessen Siefersheim 2015
Winzerhof Lüttmer Frühburgunder Saale-Unstrut 2015
Altenkirch Spätburgunder Rheingau Rotschiefer 2015
August Kesseler Spätburgunder Rheingau 2013
August Kesseler Spätburgunder Rheingau 2012
Becker Landgraf Spätburgunder Rheinhessen Muschelkalk 2013
Chat Sauvage Spätburgunder Rheingau Lorch 2013
Chat Sauvage Spätburgunder Rheingau Schulz Nr. 1 2015
Deutzerhof Spätburgunder Ahr Kirchtürmchen GG 2015
Katharina Wechsler Spätburgunder Rheinhessen 2015
Kloster Eberbach Spätburgunder Rheingau Assmannshausen Höllenberg Gold Cap 2015
Kloster Eberbach Spätburgunder Rheingau Berg Schlossberg GG 2014
Kreuzberg Spätburgunder Ahr Schieferlay GG 2015
Kreuzberg Spätburgunder Ahr Sonnenberg GG 2015
Krone Spätburgunder Rheingau Juwel 2012
Künstler Spätburgunder Rheingau Tradition 2015
Meyer-Näkel Spätburgunder Ahr Sonneberg GG 2015
Mirjam Schneider Spätburgunder Rheinhessen Kellersberg ***** 2014
Schön Spätburgunder Rheingau Rüdesheimer Berg Schlossberg Spätlese 2013
St. Antony Spätburgunder Rheinhessen Paterberg Pinot Noir 2015
Becker Landgraf Spätburgunder Rheinhessen Gau-Odernheimer 2015
Chat Sauvage Spätburgunder Rheingau 2014
Georg Breuer Spätburgunder Rheingau GB Rosé 2016
Heinz Nikolai Spätburgunder Rheingau Alte Reben 2015
J. Neus Spätburgunder Rheinhessen Muschelkalk 2015
Kloster Eberbach Spätburgunder Rheingau 2014
Kloster Eberbach Spätburgunder Rheingau Assmannshausen Höllenberg Blanc de Noirs Sekt 2012
Kloster Eberbach Spätburgunder Rheingau Assmanshäuser Höllenberg 2015
Künstler Spätburgunder Rheingau Rosé Trocken 2016
Laquai Spätburgunder Rheingau Bodental-Steinberg 2013
Laquai Spätburgunder Rheingau Trocken 2015
Michel-Pfannebecker Spätburgunder Rheinhessen Flomborner Feuerberg Im Holzfass gereift 2015
Mirjam Schneider Spätburgunder Rheinhessen **** 2014
Querbach Spätburgunder Rheingau 2007
Schäfer Spätburgunder Rheingau Hochheimer Reichestal Barrique 2015
Schäfer Spätburgunder Rheingau Hochheimer Reichestal im Holzfass gereift 2015
Thörle Spätburgunder Rheinhessen 2016
Thörle Spätburgunder Rheinhessen Saulheim 2014
Von Mumm Spätburgunder Rheingau Assmannshäuser 2014
August Eser Spätburgunder Rheingau Mittelheimer St. Nikolaus 2013
Balthasar Ress Spätburgunder Rheingau Caviar 2015
Becker Landgraf Spätburgunder Rheinhessen Rosenberg 2012
Diefenhardt Spätburgunder Rheingau 2015
Georg Breuer Spätburgunder Rheingau 2014
Georg Breuer Spätburgunder Rheingau GB Rouge 2015
Georg Gustav Huff Spätburgunder Rheinhessen Alte Reben *** 2014
Kaufmann Spätburgunder Rheingau 2015
Laquai Spätburgunder Rheingau Bodental-Steinberg Erstes Gewächs 2014
Schloss Westerhaus Spätburgunder Rheinhessen Ingelheimer trocken 2014
Von Mumm Spätburgunder Rheingau Assmanshäuser Höllenberg 2013
von Oetinger Spätburgunder Rheingau Blanc de Noirs Trocken 2015
Bossert Spätburgunder Rheinhessen Höllenbrand 2015
Georg Müller Spätburgunder Rheingau Hattenheimer Engelmannsberg Erste Lage 2015
Louis Guntrum Spätburgunder Rheinhessen Pinot Noir 2015
Maximin Grünhaus (von Schubert) Spätburgunder Mosel 2014
Diefenhardt Spätburgunder Rheingau Schlenzenberg 2014
J. Neus Spätburgunder Rheinhessen Ingelheim 2015
Krone Spätburgunder Rheingau Assmanshäuser Höllenberg 2013
Weinreich Spätburgunder & Schwarzriesling Rheinhessen 2015
Prinz von Hessen Spätburgunder Rheingau 2013
Krone Spätburgunder Rheingau Assmannshäuser 2014
Krone Spätburgunder Rheingau 2014
schiller-wine: Related Postings
UPCOMING Tours/ Wine Dinners/ Tastings - Annette and Christian Schiller/ ombiasyPR & WineTours/ schiller-wine, Germany, France, USA (Issued: July 2, 2018)
Ombiasy Wine Tours 2018: 3 x France and 3 x Germany - Ombiasy Newsletter December 2017
Winemaker Dinner with Chef/ King of Spices Ingo Holland and Sebastian Fürst (Weingut Rudolf Fürst, Franken), Julian Huber (Weingut Bernhard Huber, Baden) and Jérôme Legras (Champagne Legras & Haas)
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New Generation – The 111 Best Young German Winemakers (A Listing by Stuart Pigott)
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Cellar Tour and Tasting at Weingut Jean Stodden, Ahr, with Alexander Stodden - Germany-North Tour 2017 by ombiasy WineTours
Cellar Tour and Tasting at Weingut August Kesseler in Assmanshausen, with Winemaker Simon Batarseh – Germany-North Tour 2016 by ombiasy WineTours
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