Meet Enderle & Moll
Florian Moll (alongside his partner Geraldine and cellar-master Maxence) is one of Germany’s most sought-after Pinot Noir producers. Even though they only started in 2007, the estate has already developed a cult following, despite their ‘no fuss’ low tech approach. Florian cultivates 4 hectares of vines in Münchweier, a historic winemaking village on the slopes of the Black Forest in Baden. The sandstone and limestone rich soils found here are capable of yielding lifted and focused expressions of Pinot Noir, and he is lucky to have some of the oldest Pinot Noir vines in Baden. Florian does not have a certification, but believes that farming organically is the ‘new old’, normal way that his grandfather’s generation would have always practice. Despite being the exception to the rule in the otherwise heavily industrialised (however small structured) region of Baden, all the steep vineyard work is done by hand. Naturally, the yields are kept very low. The grapes are pressed with a pneumatic press and elévage is carried out in used barrels between 225 and 500L in size.
Despite often being compared to great Burgundian estates, Florian is not trying to replicate the Burgundian style. For him and his team, it is far more important to capture and express the potential of their own impressive terroir. Overly ripe fruit and high alcohol levels can obscure terroir, which is why they choose to declassify all their wines to ‘Tafelwein’ (table wine). This frees them up to make wine in a more transparent and energetic style; a far cry from the heavy-handed Pinot Noirs that Baden is often associated with.
Over the past few years, they have also proven a real talent for more experimental white and skin- contact wines, and in fact, they were making unfiltered, low sulphur white wines years before Germany saw a birth of young generation natural winemakers that adopted this style.
