There is a lot happening right now in German Pinot Noir and the style and overall quality is transforming before our eyes. The lessons learned over the past decade have been fundamental in achieving this, and every new vintage brings more knowledge and experience to the table. Not surprisingly, it has been the warm vintages that have provided the most food for thought and the best opportunities to learn from. 2003 hit everyone off guard. Suddenly, here was this monster vintage that (to many winemakers minds) demanded satisfactory oak treatment and tannin management. The vineyard practices that worked for decades to help promote ripeness in red grapes and combat rot (reduced yields, bunch thinning, leaf thinning, GIBB and other sprays to reduce fruit-set, loose-berry clonal selections –often Mariafelder) instead made monstrous, often soupy and port-like Pinot in 2003. The lessons learned in 2003, about what not to do, weren’t applicable in the smallish 2004 vintage or in the rot-rampant 2006 (except in the Ahr, where the rain missed and who had one of their great vintages of all-time that year), but 2005 and especially 2007 were chances to improve upon and correct the mistakes made in 2003 and the wines got much better and moved further towards elegance especially in regards to oak. 2008 was not an especially warm vintage, but the Spätburgunder in some parts of Germany benefited from hang-times of a month or longer than normal. The alcohol was down, but the grapes had excellent phenolic maturity and when the winemaker had the right clones at his disposal and showed some restraint in oak selection, the resulting Pinot Noirs were the best I have ever tasted from Germany (especially in the Pfalz and Baden.) 2009 will also go down as a top Spätburgunder vintage for a softer, slightly riper, more opulent style. But one with finesse.
Generally, The Ahr, the Pfalz, Baden, Württemberg, Franken and the Rheingau have the greatest potential to make very fine and sometimes exceptional Pinot Noir, but other regions also produce good wines if not with the regularity of those mentioned. This is achieved by finding suitable terroirs. Limestone and chalky, seashell-rich soils of course, are often part of the equation, but sandstones such as Grauwacke (which is green-gray sandstone often with Quartzit and clay) are also important, and volcanic soils play a significant role in Baden.
Another setback in the search for elegant, internationally accepted (as opposed to internationally-styled) Pinot Noir in Germany has been that the Germans have a bit of a chip on their shoulders and something to prove. For years they’ve been told that they can’t make red wine of substance and this has led to some producers overstepping their bounds in an attempt to dissuade the detractors by seeking to make deeper-colored, more extracted, heavier-oaked Pinot Noir. Much of this bad press has been their own doing, as seen in the insane pace of new red-crossings being planted and almost as quickly being abandoned for the next. There have been half-baked marketing attempts to send flawed, or under-ripe red wine abroad masked by sweetness (often by large bulk-wine producers and shipped in fancy or frosted bottles.) I can assure you that Germans do not drink sweet red wine. Until 2006, the words Pinot Noir were not allowed on Qualitätsweine or Prädikatwein from Germany and the fact that Spätburgunder is not an internationally recognized synonym for the grape has certainly hindered sales in other markets.
Pinot Noir is thought to have been brought to Germany around the year 850 from Burgundy.
Pinot Noir (Spätburgunder) ranks 3rd (after Riesling and Müller-Thurgau) in area planted in Germany at 11,800 ha (2009 Deutsches Weininstitut)
Germany ranks 3rd in the world for area planted to Pinot Noir (After France and the USA) with 11,800 ha/29,100 acres (2009 Deutsches Weininstitut)
Finally, so as not to be accused too harshly of homerism or cellar-palate, I must say that while I don’t profess to be an ‘expert’ in Pinot Noir, I have done rather extensive Pinot Noir tasting in Burgundy, Oregon, California, Alsace, Switzerland, the Loire, Chile, Lichtenstein and Austria (and of course Germany), and have tasted many of the great Pinots from New Zealand, Tasmania, and Italy. I have also tasted less-than great Pinot from those countries and regions and others such as Hungary and Argentina. I bring it up only in a last-ditch effort to persuade more people to take German Pinot with more gravitas.
Cheers,
Bill
