2018 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.

December, 2019

Nick Stock

JamesSuckling.com

98 points

High concentration of flavors in this one with dried apple, pear and salt. Full-bodied, layered and very, very dry with a chalky texture at the end. Minerality with power. Drink or hold.

February, 2019

Michael Schmidt

JancisRobinson.com

19/20

Crystal-clear fruit of mirabelle with the purity of the finest Alsace eau de vie. Add the most delicate fragrant touches of white peach and Williams pear and you are in fruit paradise, though it’s titillation not exuberance this fragrance excels in. The palate works in a similar way, putting exhilarating freshness before juicy abundance. Take a fine sprinkling of mineral rock dust, add the merest hint of exotic spice, and you have a contender for greatest Grosses Gewächs of 2018.

October, 2019

Stephan Reinhardt

Wine Advocate

95+ points

The 2018 Niederhäuser Hermannshöhle Riesling trocken –GG– is fascinatingly pure and fragrant on the nose. Crystalline, lush and intense, this is a full-bodied, crystalline, precise, salty and persistent wine with linear tension, great grip and intensity. Tasted in July 2019.

June, 2020

David Schildknecht

Vinous Media

95 points

Bittersweet, smoky herbal and nutty notes, along with an ore-like sense of deep mineral earthiness, serve as ideal foils for generously juicy ripe white peach and bright Meyer lemon. The feel is full and firm, and the finish is superbly multileveled, but with a strong emphasis on darkly earthy and minerally low-tones whose resonance sets the tongue and tonsils quivering. (And yes, it also refreshes.)

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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.