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Donnhoff

2010 Donnhoff, Niederhauser Hermannshohle Riesling GG, Nahe

Germany Riesling Nahe 750ML

Wine Advocate

93
/
2010 Donnhoff, Niederhauser Hermannshohle Riesling GG, Nahe
Donnhoff

2010 Donnhoff, Niederhauser Hermannshohle Riesling GG, Nahe

Germany Riesling Nahe 750ML

Wine Advocate

93
/

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

93

One has to rely strongly on mineral vocabulary even to describe the nose of Donnhoff’s 2010 Niederhauser Hermannshohle Riesling Grosses Gewachs, with its suggestions of struck flint and wet stone that mingle with toasted nuts, grapefruit, and white peach. Firm in texture and formidably dense, yet in no way heavy (and, like its immediate Grosses Gewachs siblings, hovering around 13% in alcohol), this finishes with almost implacable grip and a complexly dynamic exchange of fruit, herb, and mineral. A profound wine that calls attention to itself without really attempting to charm, it appears to have energy and sheer juiciness to spare for at least the next decade, during which I would not be surprised to witness it gaining further complexity. Helmut Donnhoff is quick to point out that the challenges of 2010 would seem normal by 1980s standards, and he likes the sharp differentiation of site character that he thinks is enhanced in a cooler, well-watered vintage. He harvested through the first days of November, but voiced skepticism that one could have accomplished much – at least in his vineyards – thereafter. “We harvested like the world champions in the last days, practically around the clock, because the weather reports had forecast rain and that’s what we got,” he noted, handing me a slip of paper on which his vineyard manager had written a day-to-day report intended to explain to yours truly – who had a free day November 10 and had hoped to be present for some late picking – why the harvest here ended November 5. “It would have been nice to have been able to wait until the second half of October to have begun,” he adds, “but practically speaking, I need four weeks to harvest all of my vineyards, so in my mind I plan from back to front. You can’t just wait, wait, wait, or it might be too late, you’d end up rushing, and as a result lose out on precisely what would have been your best wines. We de-acidified the early pickings – simply with calcium carbonate,” he explains. “Acid levels were dropping, but very slowly, and in the end we arrived at levels of 9.5 or 10 grams in the must, which is still high, but by that time the levels of tartaric and malic were comparable (to one another), and with the strong must weights we had, it was enough to do the job.” Bottling for most of the wines took place in late May or in June, around a month later than usual. There was some discussion, notes Donnhoff, about whether to leave higher than usual residual sugar behind in the dry wines. “But I decided against that as I didn’t want to mask the wines’ character. To be sure, there’s a sort of hardness here – though it’s not a green, under-ripe hardness but rather (an expression of) sheer density. At first I had some misgivings about the (dry) wines, but later on, I didn’t merely reconcile myself to them. On the contrary, I really started to take pleasure in them, admiring their straight lines, their clarity, and their potential. I’m a fan of Clos St. Hune and a devotee of this puristic style.” Donnhoff has repeatedly expressed his satisfaction in being able to ostensibly “complete” his vinous tour of the middle Nahe – first by acquiring property in Norheim; then in Bad Kreuznach – but the expansion has taken yet another turn with the acquisition of two and a half acres in the red Permian sandstone Roxheimer Berg, for whose maintenance his son Cornelius – a critical if publicly little-known member of Team Donnhoff for some years now – will be responsible. It was another case of a site about whose many steep, once-prestigious and increasingly-neglected vineyards Helmut Donnhoff felt frustrated and apprehensive. “One by one,” he relates, “I gazed out at parcels about which I thought, ‘Man, if things go on the same way for another year or two, this vineyard will be finished,’ and I thought about the distance – seven or eight kilometers – from Oberhausen; and (my wife) Gabi could tell just what was going through my mind, so she grabbed me under the arm (and said) ‘No!’ “ ? to no avail. The old Riesling vines are being restored and a barren portion will be replanted, but 300 liters were bottled from the 2010 crop of (no, that isn’t a misprint) Gewurztraminer.

What the Critics are Saying

The Wine Advocate

Wine Advocate

93

One has to rely strongly on mineral vocabulary even to describe the nose of Donnhoff’s 2010 Niederhauser Hermannshohle Riesling Grosses Gewachs, with its suggestions of struck flint and wet stone that mingle with toasted nuts, grapefruit, and white peach. Firm in texture and formidably dense, yet in no way heavy (and, like its immediate Grosses Gewachs siblings, hovering around 13% in alcohol), this finishes with almost implacable grip and a complexly dynamic exchange of fruit, herb, and mineral. A profound wine that calls attention to itself without really attempting to charm, it appears to have energy and sheer juiciness to spare for at least the next decade, during which I would not be surprised to witness it gaining further complexity. Helmut Donnhoff is quick to point out that the challenges of 2010 would seem normal by 1980s standards, and he likes the sharp differentiation of site character that he thinks is enhanced in a cooler, well-watered vintage. He harvested through the first days of November, but voiced skepticism that one could have accomplished much – at least in his vineyards – thereafter. “We harvested like the world champions in the last days, practically around the clock, because the weather reports had forecast rain and that’s what we got,” he noted, handing me a slip of paper on which his vineyard manager had written a day-to-day report intended to explain to yours truly – who had a free day November 10 and had hoped to be present for some late picking – why the harvest here ended November 5. “It would have been nice to have been able to wait until the second half of October to have begun,” he adds, “but practically speaking, I need four weeks to harvest all of my vineyards, so in my mind I plan from back to front. You can’t just wait, wait, wait, or it might be too late, you’d end up rushing, and as a result lose out on precisely what would have been your best wines. We de-acidified the early pickings – simply with calcium carbonate,” he explains. “Acid levels were dropping, but very slowly, and in the end we arrived at levels of 9.5 or 10 grams in the must, which is still high, but by that time the levels of tartaric and malic were comparable (to one another), and with the strong must weights we had, it was enough to do the job.” Bottling for most of the wines took place in late May or in June, around a month later than usual. There was some discussion, notes Donnhoff, about whether to leave higher than usual residual sugar behind in the dry wines. “But I decided against that as I didn’t want to mask the wines’ character. To be sure, there’s a sort of hardness here – though it’s not a green, under-ripe hardness but rather (an expression of) sheer density. At first I had some misgivings about the (dry) wines, but later on, I didn’t merely reconcile myself to them. On the contrary, I really started to take pleasure in them, admiring their straight lines, their clarity, and their potential. I’m a fan of Clos St. Hune and a devotee of this puristic style.” Donnhoff has repeatedly expressed his satisfaction in being able to ostensibly “complete” his vinous tour of the middle Nahe – first by acquiring property in Norheim; then in Bad Kreuznach – but the expansion has taken yet another turn with the acquisition of two and a half acres in the red Permian sandstone Roxheimer Berg, for whose maintenance his son Cornelius – a critical if publicly little-known member of Team Donnhoff for some years now – will be responsible. It was another case of a site about whose many steep, once-prestigious and increasingly-neglected vineyards Helmut Donnhoff felt frustrated and apprehensive. “One by one,” he relates, “I gazed out at parcels about which I thought, ‘Man, if things go on the same way for another year or two, this vineyard will be finished,’ and I thought about the distance – seven or eight kilometers – from Oberhausen; and (my wife) Gabi could tell just what was going through my mind, so she grabbed me under the arm (and said) ‘No!’ “ ? to no avail. The old Riesling vines are being restored and a barren portion will be replanted, but 300 liters were bottled from the 2010 crop of (no, that isn’t a misprint) Gewurztraminer.