2018 Bernhard Huber Malterdinger Pinot Noir

Bernhard Huber

Germany / Baden / Bernhard Huber

More than 700 years ago, Cistercian monks brought Pinot Noir to Malterdingen. The monks' estate, called "curia", was in the Mönchhofmatten district where the Huber winery is located today. In Malterdingen the monks encountered the same terroir - the weathered “shell limestone" soil - as in Burgundy. And they brought with them cutting-edge experience on how to grow Pinot Noir. In vine variety books and wine encyclopedias, the terms “Pinot Noir” and “Malterdinger” are synonymous.
The 2018 Bernhard Huber Malterdinger Pinot Noir is a VDP village wine grown on weathered shell limestone soil with a thin layer of loess clay. These grapes come from vines that are between 8 and 25 years old. After the traditional must fermentation, this wine is mainly aged in first-, second- and third-use barriques and is bottled without filtration. - Julian Huber

November, 2021

Gary Walsh

The Wine Front

94 points.

Typical earthy, nutty and spicy with dark cherry and ripe raspberry. It’s tight and savoury, but has plenty of deep dark fruit, firm stony tannin, some toastiness, and a distinctly ‘mineral’ feel, along with clean acidity, damp earth and spice on a pretty long finish. In short, very good, and offers a pleasing point of Pinot difference.

August, 2020

Stuart Pigott

jamessuckling.com

93 points.

An excellent village wine with plenty of structure and fine tannins for this category. Deep, earthy nose with plenty of sour cherries and forest berries, but also a nice hint of sweetness at the cool finish. Drink or hold.

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About Bernhard Huber

The Huber winery is located in Malterdingen in the winegrowing region of Baden in the foothills of the Black Forest mountains in Germany’s deep south west. Pinot Noir has been cultivated in the village for well over 700 years, having been brought there from Burgundy by the Cistercian monks. About two-thirds of the 25 ha estate is given over to Pinot Noir, and from these vines Bernhard Huber made scintillating wines right up to his death from illness in June 2014. This gracious gentleman had taken pointers in the early days from his great friend Jacques Seysses at Domaine Dujac but never tried to make his Pinots taste like Burgundy, instead drawing on those ideas to express the sites around Malterdingen and surrounding villages. I was lucky enough to visit Bernhard on three or four occasions over the last five years and every time came away more and more convinced that these are world-class Pinots by any measure. Winemaking responsibilities have passed to Bernhard’s son Julian, who’s inherited his father’s passion for Baden and dedication to quality.

About

Julian Huber grew up among the vines in Malterdingen, an apprentice to the "wizard of German Pinot Noir", as Jancis Robinson's German specialist Michael Schmidt referred to Julian's father, Bernhard. Julian studied winemaking at the world-famous institute at Geisenheim in the Rheingau. He returned from his final year there to work Bernhard’s final vintage in 2013. Since Bernhard's death in 2014, Julian's taken up the winemaking mantle with aplomb, displaying the same humble energy and vision for which his father was rightly admired.