700 years ago the Cistercian monks started growing vines in the area of Malterdingen in Baden, where the estate of Bernhard Huber is located. They found conditions to be perfect and the terroir to be very similar to Burgundy – the Devonian chalk soil. Since then Pinot Noir is vinified there in some wine lexica you still find the synonym “Malterdinger” for Pinot Noir. In 1987 Bernhard Huber and his wife started their own estate, leaving the cooperative to make and sell their own wines. Today, the red wines from Huber are some of the best German red wines you can find. 70% of the vineyards are planted with Pinot Noir the rest are white pinot varietals such as Pinot Blanc, Chardonnay and Auxerrois. Bernhard Huber allows all of his wines to ferment through, which results in mainly dry wines. The red wines always ferment on the skin and lay in the oak barrel for up to 18 months before bottling. Bernard Huber is one of Germany’s ten best red winemakers as identified in the November 2009 issue of ‘Der Feinschmecker’, the leading German food and wine journal. He was also Gault Millau’s wine producer of the year in 2007.