Holger Koch, Kaiserstuhl Spätburgunder 2023

100% Spätburgunder (Pinot Noir)

Baden, Germany

This addictive bottling of 35 yr old Spätburgunder vines boasts harmonious, delicate fruit. Tart cherry vibes, clear tannin structure and beautiful length — this German Pinot is, low key, the chilled red of your picnic dreams.

55% Baden clones, 45% Burgundian clones. 14 days maceration in 3000L wooden casks with 9 months aging in 3000L wooden casks. VEGAN

From the importer-

Holger trained in Bordeaux and worked for an importer in Frankfurt. When he returned to his family estate in Bickensohl in 1999, he steered his family away from the local co-op wines and replanted much of the vineyards with Organic Selection Massale vines from Alsace, Auxerrois or Burgundy, with only a few plots of old German vines making the cut. 

The majority of the vineyards sit on Loess soil, a very sandy, easily breakable mix of pulverized limestone from long eroded mountains to the east and clay, at 250 meters above sea level. 

Holger’s wines are grandpa chic—that is to say, they are how Burgundy used to taste when grandpa was just a fresh young lad: pre-global warming. It used to be that you’d struggle for ripeness in the Kaiserstuhl, even though it’s the warmest climate in Germany. But with rising temperatures throughout Europe, what used to be Burgundy now tastes like Weingut Holger Koch.

It makes sense; France is just twenty minutes away. In fact, the winery is so close to Alsace that during WWII, Holger’s grandmother could stand in the vineyard and see bombs going off across the Rhine River. The wines are distinctly French with a German accent.