In een van de warmste wijngebieden van Duitsland ligt het wijngoed van Joachim Heger en zijn familie. De 28 hectare liggen voornamelijk op de Kaiserstuhl vulkaan, een bodem die miljoenen jaren oud is. Deze bestaan uit Basalt, Magnesium, Ijzer en veel kalksteen. De wijnen die gemaakt worden zijn indrukwekkend met een grote kelderpotentie. Markus, de wijnmaker van de familie is liefhebber van het Franse eikenhout Tarransaud. Dit resulteert dus ook in een ongekend groot arsenaal aan grand cru wijnen en echte bourgondische wijnen, die in de jonge jaren wat lucht nodig hebben, maar na twee/drie jaar fles rijping smaken de wijnen optimaal!

Review

The 2014 Ihringen Vorderer Winklerberg Spätburguder GG comes from 25- to 45-year-old German Spätburgunder vines, and a mix of up to more than 20-year-old Pinot clones from Dijon and mass selections from Burgundy. The wine was made with 30% of the stems and a maceration time of 28 days or more. The wine offers a clear, deep, pure and spicy bouquet of ripe Pinot Noir, raspberries, blackberries and beetroot along with floral, flinty or some toasty flavors from the stony soils of the Vorderer Winklerberg terraces. Full-bodied, round and smooth on the palate, this is a full-bodied, elegant, silky-textured, fresh and finesse-full Pinot. It has some toasty flavors on the well-balanced palate and a long and mineral, refreshing finish. The tannins are very fine and the wine is thoroughly vivacious, revealing a precise terroir character and a lot of power. This is a remarkable Pinot Noir from a very warm spot in which Heger reduced the leaf wall to reduce the sugar and respectively alcohol level of the ripe grapes. (Tasted two times in four weeks between June and July.) 92-93/100 Stephan Rheinhardt

Under the Weingut Dr. Heger brand, Joachim Heger cultivates 28 hectares of vines, mainly in the prestigious "VDP Grosse Lage" sites, Ihringen Winklerberg and the Achkarren Schlossberg, often small plots with just a few rows on the terraces. Under the name Weinhaus Heger, wines from the grapes of contracted grape growers are produced. Dr. Heger cultivates a wide range of grape varieties, but mainly Pinot Noir (30%), Pinot Gris (31%) and Pinot Blanc (18%), as well as Riesling, Chardonnay, Silvaner, Muscat, Viognier, Syrah, Cabernet, Petit Verdot and Merlot. His Pinots, no matter which color, are among the finest in Baden, since they have improved a lot in the past couple of years. Since the grapes are picked much readier than in former times, the wines are not just fresh and well-focused, but also very elegant and finesse-full. Some of them are based on French clones, but Heger is proud of old vines Spätburgunder clones whose naturally reduced wines give depth and concentration, with complexity and power, in addition to finesse and freshness. All of the almost 30 wines I have tasted here in June were at least excellent. However, I want to underline the outstanding quality of the 2015 Winklerberg Chardonnay, which is marketed as "Erste Lage" (premier cru), but comes along with grand cru dimensions. Another stunning wine is the Syrah, of which I have tasted three vintages. It's an experiment, says Heger, and admits he doesn't yet know what to do with it and when to market it. He has never shown this wine to the press thus far, but it is certainly one of the finest Syrah in Germany (along with Knipser's and Ziereisen's Gstaad). The Pinot Noirs from 2013 and 2014 (of which I had barrel samples only) are of remarkable quality, too, especially the Häusleboden GG and the Schlossberg GG. In 2014, the harvest of Pinot Noir began on September 14 and was finished in between eight days. Häusleboden and Schlossberg are the warmest sites, so they were picked at the earliest, followed by Vorderer Berg, Mimus and Rappenecker.

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