Jean Stodden

“Yes, Stodden is without doubt the best producer on the Ahr today.” Joel Payne, Gault Millau   The Stodden family have been dedicated to producing fine wines in Germany since 1578, a company even older than Berry Bros. & Rudd. The philosophy here is to work in harmony with nature. They have never been a champion of the soft Pinot Noir style usually found in the Ahr, instead favouring ideals that hail from the Cotes de Nuits in Burgundy. Dujac, Ponsot and Roumier are all firm favourites (and friends) of the Stodden family who aim to capture some of this essence, but with a German expression.   The winemaking is fairly traditional with longer macerations (4 to 21 days), then fermentation on skins until the right amount of body has been achieved. The wines and lees are then transferred to barriques from the massif Central in France for a minimum of 16 months after the harvest to develop fully. These are bigger wines with breadth, ripeness and structure.   In 2011, the Pinot Noir, Lange Goldkapsel from Jean Stodden won Gault & Millau’s ‘German Red Wine of the Year’