Bernhard Huber

The Bernhard Huber Winery

If you look for the greatest, German winemakers for red wines, you will come across the Baden winery Bernhard Huber after a very short time. Not because it is so old, but because it is so good!

The story of the Bernhard Huber Winery began in 1987, when Bernhard and Barbara Huber decided to separate their Breisgau vineyards around Malterdingen from the winegrowers' cooperative for which they had previously supplied the grapes.

Why Bernhard Huber took this decision, which was not without risk, can be explained above all by his demand for quality. Huber no longer wanted to see his high-quality Pinot Noir grapes from his Malterdingen vineyards disappear in less than spectacular cooperative wines.

Huber's approach can best be described as French. Over 700 years ago, Cistercian monks brought the Pinot Noir or Pinot Noir grape to Malterdingen, Germany, and established a monastery and estate here called Curia. Where this estate stood half an eternity ago, the Gewann is called "Mönchhofmatten", is now the Bernhard Huber winery. As in Burgundy, the Cistercian monks found perfect soil of weathered shell limestone in Malterdingen.

Perfect soils and first-class climatic conditions are one thing, consistently low yields are another. At Bernhard Huber, the focus is entirely on quality, which is reflected particularly strongly in the Pinot Noirs. All of them are traditionally fermented completely on the skins and left on the fine lees for a long time. Bernhard Huber's wines then mature for up to 18 months in oak barrels and are gently bottled at the end. Whether estate wine or Großes Gewächs, at Bernhard Huber they take care of all wines with the same dedication.

In addition to Pinot Noir, the Bernhard Huber winery also knows how to master other grape varieties. On the total of 26 hectares of vineyards, this includes the Burgundy vines Pinot Blanc and Pinot Gris as well as Chardonnay and Auxerrois, which also find perfect conditions in Breisgau. But all in all, Pinot Noir makes up over 70% of Huber's stock. It is sourced from such prestigious sites as the Schlossberg, Bienenberg and Sommerhalde, resulting in some of the best Grosses Gewächse that the Verband Deutscher Prädikatsweingüter can boast. Aside from that, however, the "simple" wines are also a delight. Alte Reben Spätburgunder and also Große weiße VDP Gewächse do not have to hide behind grandes like Wildenstein "R". No matter which newspaper, which wine guide one opens in Germany  , the Huber wines always belong to the best. Whether Eichelmann, Feinschmecker, Gault Millau or Falstaff - they all praise the fine Huber drops.

All this sounds nice and exciting, but the history of the Huber winery in Malterdingen also has a particularly sad side. Bernhard Huber, for many wine lovers one of the greatest red wine winemakers in Germany, went the way of all things earthly far too early in 2014. He, who always emphasized Malterdingen's connection to Burgundy, had long since achieved what he wanted. His wines could absolutely take on great Burgundians. His work now continues son Julian Huber together with mother Barbara. Julian can not only rely on everything he learned from his father, but his teachers Gert Aldinger (from VDP Weingut Aldinger) and Paul Cluver in South Africa have certainly given him a lot. This ensures that the Bernhard Huber winery will continue to be a guarantor of world-class Pinot Noirs in 20 years and more.