2023 Familie Friedrich Becker, Pinot Blanc, Pfalz, Germany.
German Pinot Blanc is a thing, and the Becker Family version is not only an exceptional wine, it is also a fabulous value and a great way to start exploring these wines, along with Selbach-Oster’s from the Mosel, it is clearly a grape that has found its place here in Germany. The 2023 Familie Friedrich Becker Pinot Blanc leans heavily on its terroir and is influenced by the sandstone and limestone soils of the Pfalz region here, and has an almost Burgundy like presence in the glass with elegant textural depth, steely mineral tones and leesy hazelnut accenting the subtle lemon, peach, apple and kiwi fruits on the medium bodied palate. Starting with a touch of reductive flinty note, this wine opens up nicely and expands in the mouth, but stays nicely vigorous and taut, making it great with food and never dull, it keeps your attention and holds its focus with precision and purity of form. Interestingly, Pinot Blanc, most commonly thought of as a French varietal, especially across the Rhein in the Alsace region, is heavily planted in Italy and in Germany, with some people now believing Germany has the most planted acreage of the grape in Europe. There’s Pinot Blanc in the Burgundy region and it was once a mainstay in California as well, though it lost out to Chardonnay in the 1980s and has never really returned to prominence here, but is now seeing a moment in the Willamette Valley, in Oregon, where it is producing some outstanding wines, like those of Kelley Fox and Ken Wright. Like Becker’s Chardonnay, this wine saw a barrel fermentation and was aged in a combination of large and small barrels, to promote clarity of detail and only a small amount of new wood is ever used. Again, this “Family” wine sits one place up from Becker’s base tier of wines, just below their “Mineral” lineup and the elite VDP Cru Schweigen single vineyard series stuff.
The Weingut Friedrich Becker, as mentioned here at Grapelive.com, a founding member of the VDP, is uniquely situated almost between the border of Germany and France, in Schweigen, in the southernmost part of the Pfalz region and is noted for some of Europe’s best Pinot Noir wines, as well as specializing in Chardonnay, as seen here, along with Pinot Blanc, Pinot Gris and even Meunier, the Champagne grape. In fact, they have vineyards on both the French and German side, with 30 hectares planted to vines at the edge of the Palatinate forest, with as the winery notes, actually with 50 percent of their land situated on the French side in Alsace, though they are bottled as Pfalz wines. The limestone based soils and deep marls, with various topsoils here really favors the Burgundian grapes and the terroir allows for ripe and complex mineral driven flavors, while retaining vigorous acidity, which provides excellent balance and elegance. In recent history, Fritz Becker Jr., who is the 7th Generation to make wine here, took over from his dad in 2005 and though trying to fill some big shoes has pushed the wines to the next level and collectors and Pinot enthusiasts eagerly await new releases and make it difficult to find these excellent wines, especially the Cru bottlings. As always, I look forward to trying more of the latest releases, which are imported by The German Wine Collection to the United States, and again the Pinots in particular, with the rare GG’s being of special interest, but also a few of the alternative varietals, like the mentioned Meunier, this beautiful Pinot Blanc and the Becker Rosé. I’m a big fan of the wines at Becker and am grateful to Tim Gaiser MS for first introducing me to them about the time that Becker Jr. took over here, and I highly recommend them.
($25 Est.) 92 Points, grapelive