Villa Wolf

Ernst Loosen bought J.L. Wolf in 1996, a traditional Pfalz estate with a history running back to 1756, and renamed it Villa Wolf. It sits in the northern Pfalz among the villages of the Mittelhaardt, and the range is deliberately more approachable than his Mosel wines.

The Pfalz is Germany's second largest wine region and by some distance its warmest, sheltered by the Haardt mountains and sunny enough for figs, almonds and lemons to grow along the Weinstrasse. That warmth is why it succeeds with grapes the Mosel cannot ripen: Pinot Gris, Pinot Blanc and above all Pinot Noir, which Germany grows more of than any country except France and the United States.

The wines are made in a clean, fruit-forward style at prices that make them genuinely everyday, and they are among the most reliable introductions to modern German wine beyond Riesling.