2015 Huber Malterdinger Pinot Noir

Bernhard Huber

Germany / Baden / Bernhard Huber

The Malterdinger Pinot Noir is the village wine from Weingut Huber in Baden. Fruit comes from vines of up to 25 years of age, with deeper roots, 30 to 35% whole bunch. After harvesting the grapes with a crop round 55 hl per ha, this wine matures for 12 months in three- and four-year-old barriques.

January, 2019

Gary Walsh

The Wine Front

92 points

Vine age is around 25 years, aged in three and four year old barriques, with about 30% whole bunch. Spiced cherry and plum, ample fruit, though essentially savoury with things like walnut, sausages and hazelnuts. Medium-bodied, sappy and tangy, fine dense ‘minerally’ tannin and earthiness, solid finish. This wine is invariably interesting and offers a point of difference to many Pinot Noir.

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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.