2018 Weingut Dönnhoff, Riesling Trocken, Tonschiefer, Dry Slate, Nahe Germany -photo grapelive

2018 Weingut Dönnhoff, Riesling Trocken, Tonschiefer, Dry Slate, Nahe Germany.
These 2018 German Rieslings are out of this world with amazing purity and vibrancy, especially the wines of Dönnhoff and while most won’t be available for awhile yet, the early release “estate” as well as this fantastic Tonschiefer “Dry Slate” bottlings are available now, and no one should miss them! Exceptional in vivid detail and minerally crisp, the slate influenced and terroir driven Tonschiefer is heavenly light, bone dry and zesty with flinty/steely spice, wet rock and citrus infused with laser like focus, while still being wonderfully generous in form. Tasting Dönnhoff is always a treat, this estate is one of the world’s great and their Rieslings never disappoints, even now with my expectations as high as they are, I am left in a state of awe, even for the less expensive wines like this one, which I can’t ever get enough of! I had this bottle recently with sushi and it provided excellent palate refreshing cleansing as well as a dynamic flavor enhancement to the purity of fish, never outshining the food, it was just perfect and the lighter body here made it easy to quaff along merrily. This vintage shows a fantastic vitality with lime, white peach, spiced apricot and a white currant fruits to go along with the slate stony core as well as chamomile, citron, apple skin and orange blossom, all in a saline and mouth watering Riesling. Importer Terry Theise, one of the world’s most renown Riesling gurus, has often quoted Helmut Dönnhoff , but his “Extraordinary wines are based on extraordinary vineyards.” has always stuck with me, and when I get a chance to try his legacy in the bottle of all the Dönnhoff wines I can truly see his proof in them, they are great wines from great vines!

The Dönnhoff family first came to the Nahe region over 200 years ago, and after establishing a modest farm, it slowly evolved into a full-fledged wine estate, in more modern times it became world renown when in 1971 Helmut Dönnhoff began the making the wine here. Now things are run, and the winemaking, by Helmut’s son Cornelius, and I feel the wines just get better and better here, both the ultra premium dry stuff led by the GG’s and the sweeter versions from Kabinett to Eiswein, which maybe be the greatest wine I ever tasted! I love their Spatlese and Auslese bottlings, these are high residual sugar wines that do not taste sweet in the obvious way and are glorious wines of class and refinement. That said, it is almost impossible to resist the Dönnhoff Trockens, like this one, and especially Cornelius’ drop dead gorgeous Hermannshohle GG, one of the planet’s absolutely best dry white wines! The Nahe, and Dönnhoff , has a wide variety of soils from loess to volcanic as well as gravel, sandstone and a mix of slates, and the Tonschiefer comes from a pure slate set of vines, all between 25 and 40 years old, at the Oberhausen Leistenberg estate vineyard. The grey slate Leistenberg vineyard, a VDP Grosse Lage (Grand Cru), lies in a small side valley of the Nahe just outside Oberhausen where these warm, decomposed clay slate soils and steep terraced hillsides provide ideal conditions for Riesling, and the cooler afternoon conditions here allow for long hang times and lower natural alcohol, making for sophisticated versions of this grape. Note to self, get more of the tasty Tonschiefer, with its stunning delicacy and pop of acidity, and stock up on the 2018 vintage!
($28 Est.) 92 Points, grapelive

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