Germany’s Wonderful Take on Pinot Noir  

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, Schwaigern 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 Schwaigern of Pfalz.

Here’s a shot of the pinot noir grapes from Rheingau’s 2015 harvest at the end of August.

World’s Third-largest Grower of Pinot Noir

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around Planet Wine are only just waking up to the reality that German red wines are not all light and insipid as some outdated wine books may describe.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.

As one of the most important producers of wine — especially pinot noir — in Germany, produces some amazing pinots that you must try. Here’s a glass of freshly pressed pinot noir from the 2016 harvest.

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 Fürst family has been making wine since 1638. The son of Paul and Monika Fürst, Sebastian is now overseeing the management of the winery.

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