German Pinot’s Pride and Prejudice
Can German Pinot Noir finally catch on or is forever fashionably spät(burgunder)?
Can German Pinot Noir finally catch on or is forever fashionably spät(burgunder)?
German-born but London-based, Anne Krebiehl MW is a freelance wine writer and lecturer. She covers Alsace, Germany, Austria, England and Grower Champagne for Vinous. She lectures, particularly on German wine, judges at international wine competitions and is a panel chair at the IWC. She loves high-acid wines and her work often focuses on Pinot Noir, Riesling, and traditional method sparkling wines. Her first book, The Wines of Germany (2019) won Domaine Faiveley International Wine Book Of The Year 2020 at the Louis Roederer International Wine Writers’ Awards.
April arrived like a lamb and went out like a lion, leaving a swath of massive frost damage in its wake for the 2024 vintage.
The world of sparkling wines is changing for the better. The number of producers approaching this beverage in serious, artisanal, and creative ways continues to climb. “Grower Sekt” from Austria and Germany is very much en vogue. We are witnessing a tremendous push to quality. For a long time, “mass over class” was the motto, especially in Germany. But for a new generation, awareness of terroir and a trend toward reducing residual sugar are increasingly the focus. No stone has been left unturned in Austria, either. For several years, Austrian Sekt has been governed by a three-tiered quality pyramid: “Sekt…...
If Emilio Zierock finds it hard to talk about his controversial father, you can’t tell by listening to him. He speaks with remarkable openness about the man. Rainer Zierock, who passed away in 2009, was a brilliant visionary, but also in all likelihood the grandest provocateur in post-war German and Italian viticulture. The powerfully eloquent and often choleric Zierock was considered an eccentric of note, and one who went after everyone. More than a few people also consider him a misunderstood genius, far ahead of his time. His influence on the young wine generation, and particularly the natural wine scene,…...
The resurrected Zach. Bergweiler-Prüm Erben wines from Weingut Dr. Loosen offer a new definition of Mosel Riesling: one where the winemaker’s role is found in surrender, not forged by control.
Germany seems to require an official examination for everything. Qualitätsweine (“quality wines”) are no exception. Those that fail the test are slapped with the Landwein label. In April 2015, a group of top growers from Baden, deep in Germany’s southwest, joined forces to rebel against the official inspection system. Flouting what officials would think of as a demotion, they decided to wear Landwein as a badge of honor. Baden has long been seen as the kinder, more conventional Germany. Thus Landwein is a direct challenge to that sensibility, one that takes on more significance because it seemed the unlikeliest of places for revolt. It happened the way so many…...
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