Benchmark Wines by
Donnhoff
The Winery
Dönnhoff
“Great Riesling is like a very large orchestra playing very quietly.”
– Helmut Dönnhoff, Founder
The first of the Dönnhoff family came to the Nahe region of Germany over 250 years ago to establish a farm in the village of Oberhäusen an der Nahe. The wine estate was started by Helmut Dönnhoff’s grandfather, Hermann, in the 1920s with only 4 hectares under vine. After many years focusing on expansion and improving quality, Helmut and his son, Cornelius, expanded to 25 hectares and a total of nine different single-vineyard sites, all classified as Grand Cru. The estate recently joined a new sustainable certification called Fair’n’Green which is supported by the German Government as well as the Frauhofer Institute, one of Europe’s top research organizations. Although it is not used as a marketing tool, it has become a way for growers to share information and expand their knowledge for future generations to come.
Tasting Notes
- WA96
- High-toned, distillate-like herbal extracts along with ripe fresh strawberry, apple and quince inform the scintillating nose and electrical charged palate of Donnhoff’s 2011 Oberhauser Brucke Riesling Spatlese. “We were able to just keep waiting on this site,” he explains, “so that even this lightest wine from the Brucke was picked only in the last days of (regular) harvest.” Hints of pits and seed, along with black tea, nut oils, zesty citrus, and myriad mineral impingements add to a sense of quickening that goes well beyond mere invigoration in this gem’s strikingly persistent, shimmeringly vibrant finish. I was left with salivary glands palpitating and arms covered in gooseflesh. It will probably be hard to resist such a wine at any point over the next quarter century, but those with the requisite remaining life expectancy should make an effort to defer for the duration the pleasure of at least the last bottle or two.
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