2022 Donnhoff Niederhauser Hermannshohle Riesling Auslese Goldkap, Nahe

This starts very quietly and gently with a wafting cloud of floral aromas, but then your gaze is pulled into the base of this Gothic cathedral window, pulling you ever further upward until you are staring at the heavens. Supernatural energy and vitality, the wet stone character cascading over your palate at the super-long finish. Doesn’t want to stop! From organically grown grapes with Fair'n Green certification. Drink or hold.

98 points Stuart Pigott jamessuckling.com

For many, Dönnhoff aren’t just the best Riesling producer in the Nahe. They aren’t even just the best Riesling producer in Germany. They aren’t even just the best Riesling producer in the world. To some, Dönnhoff are the best white wine producer in the world. Which, in turns, means that Dönnhoff are right up there with the best wine growers anywhere on the planet full stop….and who are we to argue?!

The history of this fabled and benchmark estate, based in Oberhausen an der Nahe in Germany’s Nahe Valley, can be traced back over 250 years. Wine growing is firmly entrenched in the Dönnhoff families’ DNA with history books noting harvest conditions as far back as the 1780’s and the family today farm some 28Ha of vines, made up of 80% Riesling with the balance Pinot Blanc and Pinot Gris. The People With over 250 years of winegrowing history in the back pocket, it is little surprise that the Dönnhoff crew know a thing or two about Riesling. However, Riesling only truly became the focus of the estate under the watchful eye of Hermann Dönnhoff (1880-1953) who was the first to shift the focus, and to extensively plant the world’s greatest grape variety (fact!) in the families’ prized vineyards. A pioneer, as early as the 1920’s, Hermann was also the first in the region to bottle and label wines using very specific vineyard names; names that are now idolised across the entire wine world.

The modern-day success of the estate can be attributed to Hermann’s son, the one and only Helmut Dönnhoff, who assumed control in 1971, and who’s tireless work in the vineyards through the decades ensured the estate is now seen as one of the leading lights for Riesling cultivation in the world. The Nahe has perhaps the most complex tapestry of soils of all the well-known German wine producing regions & Helmut’s intimate knowledge of each site paved the way for the estate to year-on- year produce a spell-binding array of wines from each vintage. Such wines range from a terrific ‘Estate’ wine, that puts many a producers’ top bottlings in the shade; to the bass-driven and cerebral-dry Grossen Gewächse (GGs), hailing from the hallowed turfs of Dellchen, Felsenberg & Hermannshöhle; to the airy and free-flowing Kabinetts from Leistenberg & Krötenpfuhl; all the way through to the breathtaking and unicorn Spätlese & Auslese from the prized monopole Brücke vineyard.

Few other estates in the world, if any, master both dry and sweeter style of wines quite like Dönnhoff do and today, with Helmut’s son Cornelius at the helm (who returned to the family estate in 2007) the wines continue to forge a path of excellence, expressing each site to the fullest, whether that be through the guise of powerful dry wines, or sweeter wines of majestic elegance and complexity. We’re incredibly proud to represent the Dönnhoff family and everything that they contribute to the world of Riesling. Many a moment has been spent oohing and aahing over the wines that are poured from the classic Riesling bottles that are adorned with simple yet iconic (and informative) white labels and we know that in the future those oohs and aahs will continue thanks to Cornelius’ deep understanding and intimate knowledge of the vines he is the current custodian of.