
Germans call pinot noir spatburgunder, literally late ripening red Burgundy, as opposed to early ripening Burgundy (fruhburgunder) version, which they also plant, but use it for blending only.
We know that Cistercian monks from Switzerland planted the first pinot noir. German Duke Berthold IV of Zehringen brought the vines to Germany and asked the good monks to plant them. The Cistercian monks’ order originates in Citeaux, Burgundy, and they were responsible for much of the good work accomplished in Burgundy with regard to establishing the best soil types, best sites and vitivinicultural practices at that time.
The Cistercian monastery in Malterdingen was founded in 1161. Vineyards on calcareous soils surrounded it with this capricious, thin-skinned, and late ripening variety. By all accounts, this vineyard still produces outstanding pinot noir in Germany.
The first large-scale plantings in Germany occurred in 1285, and now the country has 12 000 hectares spatburgunder vineyards third after Burgundy, France, and the U S A.
Before 1970, the Ahr Valley in northerh Germany had exclusively pinot noir vineyards that produced very pale, and delicate wines. Climate changes made german vienaydrs a little warmer, resulting in much better and better-balanced spatburgunder wines.
Today, the Rheigau, 200 km. East of Cote d’Or, harvests spatburgunder only five to seven days later than in Burgundy, and growers wait until grapes acquire sufficiently high sugar levels to quality for spatlese (late harvest) quality. In German wine law, quality is linked to natural sugar content ogf the fruit.
Wurttemberg and the Ahr Valley produce more red wine than white, and they are getting better at vinifying.
Kaiserstuhl on the east bank of the Rhine River is potentially and excellent region for pinot noir, and more and more wineries including co-operatives are producing pinot noir. Many of the young winemakers are university educated (Geisenheim, or Montpellier, or Dijon, or the U S A) and serve a “specialization” stint to Burgundy to learn from more experienced winemakers.
Recently, I tasted pinot noir from Rheigau that could be mistaken for a high-end red Burgundy, and the best thing about these wines is that they cost a fraction of their brethren from Burgundy.
Here are some producers that excel in making spatburgunder:Rainer Schnaitmann (Unterturkheim); Klaus-Peter Keller, (Dalsheim, Rheinhessen); August Kesseler (Rheingau); Fritz Becker, (Palatinate); Paul Furst (Franconia); Bernard Huber, Rainhold Scheider (Baden); and Werner Knipser (Palatinate).
All of the above are small quality-oriented, if not obsessed, wineries, and rarely export to Canada.
If you happen to be in Germany and close to the region, book an appointment with any of the wineries and taste their wines. You will be pleasantly surprised.
There are two more red grape varieties that deserve mention dornfelder, (a cross of helfensteiner itself a cross between fruhburgunder and trollinger, and Heroldrebe, a cross of blauer portugieser and lemberger), is a red-fleshed grape yielding dark red juice. It is an early ripening variety, crossbred by August Herold in 1955 at Wurttemberg’s Weinsburg Institute.
Regent is a relatively new hybrid of Diana (silvaner and Muller-Thurgau) and chambourcin. It resists fungal diseases and downy mildew, and was created by professor Gerhard Alleweldt at the Geilweilerhof Institute in 1967, but was only released in 1996.
Lemberger (a.k.a blaufrankisch in Austria, kekfrankos in Hungary) is widely planted. It is dark-skinned, ripens late, contains high levels of tannins, and yields fruity, spicy and masculine wines. Planted in Wurttemberg (Germany), Austria, the U S A, New Zealand, Switzerland, Australia and Italy.
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