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Donnhoff

2006 Donnhoff, Niederhauser Hermannshohle Riesling Trocken, Nahe

Germany Riesling Nahe 750ML

Wine Advocate

94
/
2006 Donnhoff, Niederhauser Hermannshohle Riesling Trocken, Nahe
Donnhoff

2006 Donnhoff, Niederhauser Hermannshohle Riesling Trocken, Nahe

Germany Riesling Nahe 750ML

Wine Advocate

94
/

Considered the Nahe's finest Grand Cru, Herman is actually an ode to Hermes, and Höhle to the small mine buried in the hill. A wild array of soils - black slate, limestone, some volcanic influence as well - only heighten the complexity, and these wines are a true treat to find with age!

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Helmut and now Cornelius Dönnhoff are not your classic, Dijon-trained, by-the-book winemakers; instead, they're incredibly intuitive, with the ability and assuredness to pivot when needed. Wine needs longer in tank? Do it. These grapes taste as though they would make a phenomenal dry wine? Ausgezeichnet. Blessed with a wealth of experience in learning on the job, as well as decades with their old vines in several magnificent Grand Crus, Dönnhoff is unmistakably one of the very best labels in Europe, annually.

Donnhoff

With family roots in Oberhäusen an der Nahe dating back some two and a half centuries, Dönnhoff is cemented as a true legend of the region. Yet the family, today with Cornelius at the helm of the estate, is entirely humble and committed to their craft. Having amassed about 25 hectares, their winery is large enough to allow Cornelius both time and space to make his wines how he prefers - also to hold back plenty of wine until he feels it is perfectly ready to drink. 

In the vineyards, yields are naturally reduced by virtue of steep vineyards that produce tiny berries. With well-positioned sites that are not generally subject to mildew or rot (aside from botrytis in some), hang-time on the vines is prolonged and awaits the perfect moment of ripeness for each bottling. With the cool temperatures, the vines are trained very low to the ground to take advantage of the dark soils' natural reflective heat. There is no dogma dictating which vineyard will be made dry or off-dry, rather it is following the deeply-instilled intuition from decades of experience. 

In the winery, grapes are pressed immediately to retain freshness. Fermentations will happen in large oak or stainless casks (as determined from the taste by Cornelius), and all fermentations are allowed to commence and complete naturally. 

It should be noted that in 2024, the Dönnhoff vineyards were pummeled by frost, creating a loss of more than 90%. To illustrate the family's importance to the region, neighbors and friends (Witmann, Bürklin-Wolf) graciously offered parts of their vineyards to Cornelius for the vintage. As if we couldn't already love them enough. 

Meet the Producer

Donnhoff

Helmut and now Cornelius Dönnhoff are not your classic, Dijon-trained, by-the-book winemakers; instead, they're incredibly intuitive, with the ability and assuredness to pivot when needed. Wine needs longer in tank? Do it. These grapes taste as though they would make a phenomenal dry wine? Ausgezeichnet. Blessed with a wealth of experience in learning on the job, as well as decades with their old vines in several magnificent Grand Crus, Dönnhoff is unmistakably one of the very best labels in Europe, annually.

With family roots in Oberhäusen an der Nahe dating back some two and a half centuries, Dönnhoff is cemented as a true legend of the region. Yet the family, today with Cornelius at the helm of the estate, is entirely humble and committed to their craft. Having amassed about 25 hectares, their winery is large enough to allow Cornelius both time and space to make his wines how he prefers - also to hold back plenty of wine until he feels it is perfectly ready to drink. 

In the vineyards, yields are naturally reduced by virtue of steep vineyards that produce tiny berries. With well-positioned sites that are not generally subject to mildew or rot (aside from botrytis in some), hang-time on the vines is prolonged and awaits the perfect moment of ripeness for each bottling. With the cool temperatures, the vines are trained very low to the ground to take advantage of the dark soils' natural reflective heat. There is no dogma dictating which vineyard will be made dry or off-dry, rather it is following the deeply-instilled intuition from decades of experience. 

In the winery, grapes are pressed immediately to retain freshness. Fermentations will happen in large oak or stainless casks (as determined from the taste by Cornelius), and all fermentations are allowed to commence and complete naturally. 

It should be noted that in 2024, the Dönnhoff vineyards were pummeled by frost, creating a loss of more than 90%. To illustrate the family's importance to the region, neighbors and friends (Witmann, Bürklin-Wolf) graciously offered parts of their vineyards to Cornelius for the vintage. As if we couldn't already love them enough. 

The Wine Advocate

Wine Advocate

94

The 2006 Niederhauser Hermannshohle Riesling Grosses Gewachs reveals concentrated yellow plum, white peach, and citrus, wreathed by basil, licorice, and pungent smokiness, and underlain by nut oils, meat broth, hints of fruit pit bitterness, and an implacable slab of stone. The ripeness is more evident as a sense of weight (although the finished alcohol stayed just under 13%) and there is a deep richness as well as cool restraint to this wine’s entire performance. The finish is bound to leave you quiet and contemplative, and it will be worth contemplating (and periodically re-visiting) for at least another 15 years. “I was amazed when the 2006s tasted as good as I had said they might become,” says Helmut Donnhoff. “It turned out what we vintners always said about Riesling – that’s it’s ideally suited to our clime – is true. I guess I didn’t really didn’t believe that in quite complete seriousness. I ran around the cellar like a crazy man, tasting back and forth” in excitement as the quality of this latest collection became evident. Sample it starting almost anywhere, and you’ll be a believer, too. “If there is one vintage I could compare with this, it would be 1971 as I remember it, with this perfect tension between acid and sugar, this clarity, a bit of botrytis but not stinky, completely clear and mineral, structured, architectural.” In the 21 years I have been visiting him, I have never known Helmut Donnhoff to permit himself such superlatives. “We set the record, harvesting everything in two weeks,” he adds. Trying to handle so many sites needing so much selection in so short a time “was close to the limit, and we managed it only because I have really good people” picking. This year, Donnhoff added to his line-up vineyards in two of the three traditionally top sites of Bad Kreuznach, parcels whose purchase in 2003 he had kept under wraps until now. On the one hand he felt that acquiring parcels another step downstream and in his “home city” and which – like those in Norheim – had once been proudly maintained by “wine nobility” but more recently neglected, followed a theme and closed a circle. “I see myself in the line of cellar-masters who were my mentors. If I didn’t do it,” he says, “there was nobody else left.” On the other hand, he had in mind that vineyards “not quite so close to my heart,” but still top quality (“because a lousy vineyard and a good vineyard take the same amount of work”) could be employed to increase volumes of his generic Riesling. As soon as he tasted the first young wines, he knew they were not destined for blending away! In virtually any other vintage, his top 2006 Auslesen would have been Beerenauslesen, Donnhoff points out, and I have to admit I wondered whether the wines that followed – even if considered virtual Trockenbeerenauslesen – could represent an ascent. “One sees the botrytis during the harvest and one senses the possibilities. But one also knows what can happen if bad weather comes. And all of the vineyards were ripening at the same time. Sweet, dry, botrytized, all were possible at the same time. In principle, I would have had to harvest everything on the same day, which is impossible, crazy. Of course, you could have pushed things to the limit and harvested T.B.A. – I know I can make one at the highest level – but my story, my love is here,” says Donnhoff, stretching his hands over the bottles of Spatlese and Auslese lined up on the table.” That represents my dream, and anything that jeopardizes it must be set aside. I’ll always forgo the extra 10% of opulence.” Hence, although at one point a start was made on berries for T.B.A., in the end, only two truly botrytis-dominated wines, both Beerenauslesen, were picked.

What the Critics are Saying

The Wine Advocate

Wine Advocate

94

The 2006 Niederhauser Hermannshohle Riesling Grosses Gewachs reveals concentrated yellow plum, white peach, and citrus, wreathed by basil, licorice, and pungent smokiness, and underlain by nut oils, meat broth, hints of fruit pit bitterness, and an implacable slab of stone. The ripeness is more evident as a sense of weight (although the finished alcohol stayed just under 13%) and there is a deep richness as well as cool restraint to this wine’s entire performance. The finish is bound to leave you quiet and contemplative, and it will be worth contemplating (and periodically re-visiting) for at least another 15 years. “I was amazed when the 2006s tasted as good as I had said they might become,” says Helmut Donnhoff. “It turned out what we vintners always said about Riesling – that’s it’s ideally suited to our clime – is true. I guess I didn’t really didn’t believe that in quite complete seriousness. I ran around the cellar like a crazy man, tasting back and forth” in excitement as the quality of this latest collection became evident. Sample it starting almost anywhere, and you’ll be a believer, too. “If there is one vintage I could compare with this, it would be 1971 as I remember it, with this perfect tension between acid and sugar, this clarity, a bit of botrytis but not stinky, completely clear and mineral, structured, architectural.” In the 21 years I have been visiting him, I have never known Helmut Donnhoff to permit himself such superlatives. “We set the record, harvesting everything in two weeks,” he adds. Trying to handle so many sites needing so much selection in so short a time “was close to the limit, and we managed it only because I have really good people” picking. This year, Donnhoff added to his line-up vineyards in two of the three traditionally top sites of Bad Kreuznach, parcels whose purchase in 2003 he had kept under wraps until now. On the one hand he felt that acquiring parcels another step downstream and in his “home city” and which – like those in Norheim – had once been proudly maintained by “wine nobility” but more recently neglected, followed a theme and closed a circle. “I see myself in the line of cellar-masters who were my mentors. If I didn’t do it,” he says, “there was nobody else left.” On the other hand, he had in mind that vineyards “not quite so close to my heart,” but still top quality (“because a lousy vineyard and a good vineyard take the same amount of work”) could be employed to increase volumes of his generic Riesling. As soon as he tasted the first young wines, he knew they were not destined for blending away! In virtually any other vintage, his top 2006 Auslesen would have been Beerenauslesen, Donnhoff points out, and I have to admit I wondered whether the wines that followed – even if considered virtual Trockenbeerenauslesen – could represent an ascent. “One sees the botrytis during the harvest and one senses the possibilities. But one also knows what can happen if bad weather comes. And all of the vineyards were ripening at the same time. Sweet, dry, botrytized, all were possible at the same time. In principle, I would have had to harvest everything on the same day, which is impossible, crazy. Of course, you could have pushed things to the limit and harvested T.B.A. – I know I can make one at the highest level – but my story, my love is here,” says Donnhoff, stretching his hands over the bottles of Spatlese and Auslese lined up on the table.” That represents my dream, and anything that jeopardizes it must be set aside. I’ll always forgo the extra 10% of opulence.” Hence, although at one point a start was made on berries for T.B.A., in the end, only two truly botrytis-dominated wines, both Beerenauslesen, were picked.