Iconic German Pinot producer dies

Bernhard Huber, one of Germany’s leading Pinot Noir producers, has died aged 55 following a two year battle with cancer.

In 1987 Huber, alongside his wife Barbara, was the first of his family to stop selling to local cooperatives and turn his attention to producing wine under his own name.

Inspired by the monastic tradition of growing Pinot Noir in Baden and in particular the 13^th century Cistercian community that had cultivated the grape in the town of Malterdingen where his own estate was located.

“Bernhard Huber was a pioneer and an idol for German Pinot Noir production,” said Monika Reule, managing director of the German Wine Institute.

“His passion was to demonstrate that Pinot Noir from Germany can compete with those from all other highly esteemed Pinot Noir provenances in the world, and he has impressively shown that they can.”

A pioneer of German Pinot, often called its “godfather”, his top single-vineyard wines equalled and even surpassed some Burgundian grand crus and he was at the head of a surge of Pinot Noir plantings between 1980 and 2012 which made the grape Germany’s leading fine red wine.