PINOT NOIR: GERMANY
Under its German moniker, Pinot Noir has had a long and varied history. Today it is widely planted across the country’s top wine regions, where winemakers are reacting to the effects of climate change and focusing on fruit purity
Spätburgunder is the German name for Pinot Noir, and means literally ‘late Burgundy’, in reference to its ripening time and origin. It is possible that the variety first arrived in Germany as early as the ninth century. An often-cited story recounts how Charlemagne [d. 814 AD] ordered monks to plant a vineyard in the Rheingau, on a hill below what is now known as Schloss Johannisberg. It may well be Pinot Noir that they planted, as wild Pinot grapes have been found growing on a nearby island in the Rhine.
As Benjamin Lewin MW points out in his comprehensive study In Search of Pinot Noir (Vendange, 2011), there is more evidence suggesting that the Cistercian monks later planted black grapes at the nearby Kloster Eberbach, which was founded in 1136, although there is no proof that these vines were Pinot Noir. According to the German Wine Institute (DWI), the first clear written reference to Klebrot – an early name for Pinot Noir – is said to have been made locally in 1470.
Pinot Noir later became a common variety in the Rheingau, where 390ha of 3,200ha (DWI, 2020) are still planted with this grape, mainly in the northwestern corner around the town of Assmannshausen. The steep Höllenberg (‘Hell’s Mountain’) of the village has been a source of great Spätburgunder through the ages, especially during the 19th and early 20th centuries, when its Pinots rivalled those of Burgundy.
In the 16th century, Spätburgunder was mentioned in the Ahr valley as ‘Bleichert’, which means ‘pale’, indicating the colour of the wine. Spätburgunder became the star in the protected microclimate and Devonian slate soil of this northern tributary of the Rhine, producing wines that are fresh yet powerful at the same time. It is now the dominant variety there, covering 65% of all vineyard areas along the Ahr.
Even the Mosel has a history of planting Spätburgunder. In the 19th century, it was cultivated and sold as Roter Burgunder (‘red Burgundy’). But as Riesling commanded higher prices, the Nazis prohibited the planting of black varieties in 1933, under a law that stayed in force until 1987.
Today, Baden is Germany’s Spätburgunder paradise, with the grape occupying 5,260ha of its 15,812ha. There is a natural alliance between the warmer climate of the southern region of Baden and some of its soils: calcareous in Breisgau, for example, and volcanic at the Kaiserstuhl.
Although the planting of black grapes only accounted for 11.4% of Germany’s total plantings in 1980, it saw a significan
