More about Weingut Bernhard Huber

If you spend enough time traveling around the wine world, you inevitably come across growers who loom large in their home country but, for whatever reason, have never quite broken through here in the States. Weingut Bernhard Huber in Germany’s Baden region is one such example. In fact, these wines have been absent from the market for nearly a decade. We’re thrilled to have them back on these shores and tasting better than ever.

In Germany, Huber has long been considered one of the essential producers in Baden, that country’s most important terroir for Pinot(s). In the late '80s, Bernhard Huber stopped selling fruit to the local co-op and instead set out to bottle his own wines. Inspired by the wines of Burgundy, he pushed for lower yields, denser plantings, and a more exacting approach in both vineyard and cellar. The results were powerful, structured wines that helped put Baden on the international wine map, earning him the nickname “the German Godfather of Pinot Noir.”

What makes Huber especially distinctive is the quality of their terroir. While many of Baden’s most famous vineyards lie on the steep volcanic slopes of the Kaiserstuhl, Huber’s home village of Malterdingen is defined by limestone soils and protected from extreme heat by the nearby Black Forest. All of this infuses the wines with remarkable freshness, tension, and a distinctly “Burgundian” structure.

Bernhard’s untimely death from cancer in 2014 forced an abrupt transition, with his son Julian stepping in to take over the estate at a young age. Over the past decade, Julian has emerged as a talented vigneron in his own right. Where his father’s wines were lauded for their balance of power and precision, with plenty of extract and influence from oak barrels (he came to fame in the 1990s, after all), Julian has a more delicate touch in the cellar. The wines still have plenty of punch, but there is a new level of clarity and freshness across the range.