German Pinot Noir stifled by lack of awareness

German Pinot Noir is greatly admired by sommeliers and should be promoted as the country’s second grape but is stifled by lack of consumer knowledge and limited plantings.

Iris Ellmann, managing director of the Winebarn, spoke to the drinks business and stated her belief that although Germany makes, “very good Grau and Weissburgunders, the most exciting grapes in Germany at the moment are Riesling and Pinot Noir.”

Furthermore, she said that her chief Pinot Noir clients were restaurants and some private clients who had a reasonable knowledge of German wines already. German Pinot Noirs will be promoted just as actively as Riesling during the Winebarn’s current tie-in with Harrods. (LINK)

“Sommeliers love these wines,” she said, “the quality is not below that of Burgundy and with some professional guidance people are more than happy to taste them.”

However, crucially, she did admit that “just by looking at the labels”, German Pinot was not the automatic choice of the great majority of people.

Meanwhile, Dörte Näkel, daughter of Werner Näkel owner of Weingut Meyer-Näkel in the Ahr – a hub of German Pinot Noir production – also told db that although the home market was very healthy, outside of Germany, “our Pinot Noir needs a lot of explanation”.

“German exports are based around Riesling,” she explained, “no one really knows about our Pinot and there isn’t very much of it.”

This lack of volume is not helped by vintages such as 2010 where production was much smaller than normal.

Näkel reported that the estate normally produces around 120,000 bottles. The 2010 vintage saw a reduction of some 40% due to rain in August and two to three passes of the vineyards had to be made in order to gather the maximum amount of fruit possible.

That said, she added that they were not in as bad a state as some producers in the south of Germany, in Baden and Württemburg, where production fell by as much as 80% in places.

Rupert Millar, 14.04.2011