Alexander Stodden

Today

Work in South African wineries and U.S. wineries widened Alexander's frame before he returned to the family estate. Taken across two hemispheres, those periods gave him a broader set of references to bring back to Rech, where the Ahr landscape and the demands of Spätburgunder continue to set the terms. The result is a style shaped by outside experience but grounded in the constraints of a single place. The two roles sit together: keeping a family estate in motion while making decisions vintage by vintage. The work depends on repetition, patience, and the discipline to keep returning to the same grape, year after year, without expecting the same result twice.

Signature

Alexander's signature wines include 2017 Rechter Herrenberg VDP Großes Gewächs, 2017 Herrenberg Spätburgunder VDP Großes Gewächs, and 2018 Herrenberg Frühburgunder VDP.GROßES GEWÄCHS®. Together, these wines show how site, selection, and cellar decisions are carried through to bottle. The names already point to the seriousness of the work; the wines themselves translate the vineyards into a direct account of precision, place, and attention to Spätburgunder.

In Their Words “It is the grape variety that gives us gray hair every year — but with every glass we are glad that we are maturing the wine year after year.” The line is plainspoken about the labor of making wine from a difficult grape. It names the pressure, the adjustments, and the repetition that sit behind each vintage. It also points to the payback: the moment when the work resolves in the glass and the year’s decisions become visible.

Recognition

Alexander's honors include Falstaff Winemaker of the Year for the Ahr (2014). In a region where precision is not optional, the award sits as recognition of consistency rather than spectacle. It reflects a body of work built through close attention, year after year, to one of Germany’s most demanding varieties.