About this WINE
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’
Pinot Noir
Pinot Noir is probably the most frustrating, and at times infuriating, wine grape in the world. However when it is successful, it can produce some of the most sublime wines known to man. This thin-skinned grape which grows in small, tight bunches performs well on well-drained, deepish limestone based subsoils as are found on Burgundy's Côte d'Or.
Pinot Noir is more susceptible than other varieties to over cropping - concentration and varietal character disappear rapidly if yields are excessive and yields as little as 25hl/ha are the norm for some climats of the Côte d`Or.
Because of the thinness of the skins, Pinot Noir wines are lighter in colour, body and tannins. However the best wines have grip, complexity and an intensity of fruit seldom found in wine from other grapes. Young Pinot Noir can smell almost sweet, redolent with freshly crushed raspberries, cherries and redcurrants. When mature, the best wines develop a sensuous, silky mouth feel with the fruit flavours deepening and gamey "sous-bois" nuances emerging.
The best examples are still found in Burgundy, although Pinot Noir`s key role in Champagne should not be forgotten. It is grown throughout the world with notable success in the Carneros and Russian River Valley districts of California, and the Martinborough and Central Otago regions of New Zealand.
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Description
The Lange Goldkapsel (long gold capsule) is only produced in exceptionally good years, previously only 2009, 2006, 2003, 1999 and 1997. Packed with clove and sweet spices and lively red berry fruits on the nose with succulent cherry, roses and red berry flavours. Everything is in perfect harmony, with a regal structure that’s full of substance. Very selective, hand-picked berries from the great Stodden vineyards. This is a wine very much worthy of the Gault & Millau’s German Red Wine of the Year title.
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