Andreas Bender
A Mosel man who makes Riesling at home and heads down to the Pfalz for the reds.
Andreas Bender was born in Leiwen, deep in the Mosel, in 1980, the son of a vine nurseryman. He made his first wine at 13 in the family basement, studied at Geisenheim (Germany’s wine university) and cut his teeth in cellars across France, Italy and the US before setting up on his own in 2008, starting with the family vineyards.
There’s a twist to how he works: rather than bottling each top site separately, as German tradition dictates, he vinifies the plots one by one and then blends them into three house styles. He describes it as having a whole piano to play on. On the Mosel he makes Riesling on slate (Paulessen, Dajoar, Hofpäsch); for the reds he heads down to the warmer, drier Pfalz, where he gets Pinot Noir and Cabernet Sauvignon with a finesse that doesn’t square with any cliché about German wine.