All for pinot noir

Going the whole hog for Spätburgunder (the German name for Pinot Noir) was what winemaker, Bernhard Huber, had in mind 10 years ago. “I wanted to turn all my vineyards into 100% Pinot Noir sites,” reveals the soft spoken 53-year-old German, who runs his eponymous winery in Malterdingen —a commune in the south western wine region of Baden—and cultivates, apart from the red grape, other whites like Riesling and Pinot Gris. “I saw that my friends in the Mosel area were concentrating their efforts on only one varietal—Riesling—for their vines, and they were making wonderful whites.”
His wife, though, wasn’t taken to the idea, and he had to can his dream. But that has not undermined the fate of his Spätburgunders today: Huber’s Pinots, whose plants dominate his 27 hectares of vineyards, are regarded to be the best in Baden. The elixirs are sought after by the domestic market, and, in recent years, the international wine community who are breaking out of the Riesling rut for German wein. Last year, Huber picked up the Best Spätburgunder of The Year 2011 accolade for its Schlossberg GG in the Gault Millau German Wein Guide.
Excerpt from the March issue of epicure.