2014 Dönnhoff Hermannshöhle Riesling Grosses Gewächs

Dönnhoff

Germany / Nahe / Dönnhoff

A perfect, steep southern slope with soils consisting of blackish grey slate and volcanic elements, extremely rich in minerals. This legendary site is the best-rated vineyard in the entire Nahe region. The vines are up to 60 years old and give yields of about 40hl/ha. 100% selective hand harvest. The must is fermented and the wine matured in stainless steel vats and classic oak barrels. A very complex Riesling of noble elegance with a hugely intense, rich fullness of flavour and deep mineral tones. A great dry wine with a mysterious, aristocratic character.

March, 2016

Stephan Reinhardt

Wine Advocate

96 points

Dönnhoff's iconic 2014 Riesling Hermannshöhle GG opens with a beautifully clear, coolish and smoky/fumy bouquet of great purity, precision and aromatic complexity. Think of intermingling lemon and slate aromas. The attack on the palate is racy and clear, and the wine starts straightly dancing over the palate. This is concentrated, perfectly ripe Riesling on the knife's edge; it's nicely piquant, highly mineral and endlessly salty. There are notes of melting stones and mineral, with great tension. "The vines are older in the Hermannshöhle, one plot is as old as I am," says Dönnhoff, who was born in 1949.

July, 2016

Decanter Magazine

97 points

Nahe grower Dönnhoff would be in most people’s top 10 in German dry Riesling. The estate dates back to 1750. Helmut Dönnhoff has recently ceded his place to his son Cornelius but he remains very much a part of the furniture. There are 25ha of vines grown on a mixture of slate, sandstone and the volcanic soils so typical of this part of the Nahe. The best wines are from sites such as Niederhäuser Hermannshöhle, Norheimer Dellchen and Schlossböckelheimer Felsenberg.

August, 2015

Richard Hemming MW

jancisrobinson.com

17/20

Lemon cordial, bitter grapefruit and a rich, thick texture. Relies on volume, without the breadth and length of the best vintages.

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About Dönnhoff

Helmut Dönnhoff and son Cornelius make the best wines in the Nahe region and some of the finest anywhere in the world. We can't possibly overstate how much we cherish and revere these wines. They are sheer perfection in their elegantly defined structure and flawless harmony. The epitome of their meticulous winemaking is the Eiswein. Dönnhoff wines have such power and complexity that their signature weightlessness seems nigh on miraculous. One taste and you sense the magic. These wines are on a par with the best of Germany in a very unique way: the sweet wines rival those of Prüm, Loosen and Egon Müller and the dry wines are mentioned in the same breath as luminaries such as Wittmann and Weil. Very few - if any - have this degree of versatility...

About

Cornelius Dönnhoff bears with him the promise and burden of great expectations. Dönnhoff’'s world-renowned Rieslings were first carried into the international limelight by his father, but now it is the son assuming an increasing share of the responsibility for the estate in the small town of Oberhausen on the Nahe (population 400). “No one knows the Nahe, but everyone knows Dönnhoff,” they say in the USA. And with the recent conclusion of his seventh vintage, this young, university-trained viticulturalist has every reason to smile. He won three consecutive Feinschmecker Cups for his dry Riesling collection, and in 2012 the simultaneous distinction of both “Estate of the Year” and “Best White Wine Collection” from the renowned Eichelmann wine guide. In 2014 Stuart Pigott named him Winemaker of the Year in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. Cornelius acquired his initial winemaking experience at his parents' estate, followed by an apprenticeship at the Dr. Heger wine estate in Ihringen. University studies in viticultural techniques in Bad Kreuznach came next, followed by time abroad in New Zealand and Australia. In 2007 he assumed the role of cellarmaster at Dönnhoff and currently runs the estate together with his father.