Germany may be the spiritual home of Riesling, but there’s plenty for Pinot lovers to celebrate, especially in the red wine hub of Baden. If this region isn’t already on your radar, today’s offer is the perfect place to start.

Manfred Enderle and Florian Moll are certainly two of Germany's best winemakers, but their path to greatness hasn't been straightforward. When they began their domaine, in 2007, everything they did flew against conventional German wine wisdom. They prized location and vine age over ripeness, neutral oak over new, and subtlety over flash. They work with some of Baden's oldest Pinot Noir vines, and everything is farmed organically and biodynamically.

They make the kind of wines that beg comparison to the world's great bottles. You can't help but compare them to Burgundy, for obvious reasons: cool climate Pinot Noir arranged in a pyramid of quality. The regional "Basis" is a perfect calling card to understand just what is up with these wines; their Grand Cru wines, designated by the vineyard's soil type, are made in tiny quantities.

Their natural, hands-off practices make for wines that scintillate rather than overwhelm with their sunny fruit with underlying minerality. The extractions are light and oak is neutral. But with all the stuffing from terroir and old vines, the wines possess the quiet power you expect from great Burgundy.


Enderle & Moll, Pinot Noir Basis, 2021 $28.99
This is from the so-called “young vines,” which are already up to 30-years-old! Freshest and most accessible of their wines, it really is a world-beating Pinot Noir for the money.

Enderle & Moll, Pinot Noir Muschelkalk, 2021 $59.99
Muschelkalk is seashell-studded limestone soil. This cuvée comes from a plot planted in the 1950s, the oldest in the area. High-toned notes of sour cherry, herbs and confit berries with bass notes of clay and limestone minerality. Pure elegance, with delicate chalkiness and very fine, yet almost still severe tannins, that will slowly but elegantly unwind with age, even the next few decades, if you have the time and space.

Enderle & Moll, Pinot Noir Buntsandstein, 2021 $59.99
Over 50 year old vines on Buntsandstein (coloured sandstone soils). This wine shows more brambly fruit, and it's denser and chewier than the Muschelkalk. Notes of earth, mushroom and concentrated red fruit balance out slightly rustic tannins.