Dönnhoff

[Florida Jim]

Almost every year, I buy a case of the Dönnhoff, Riesling Qba. It took a few years but I finally realized that this is terrific wine in almost any vintage. I like to drink it out of syrah glasses (and don’t care who knows it) because its aromas are all about white fruit and cherries and stones with hints of flowers tossed in and those little Riesling glasses seem to contain it. Expansive is my preference.

Its never too sweet, always representative of the Nahe, full-flavored, balanced and impeccably made.

Tonight we opened the 2002 version of this wine and my wife and I are sitting around acting like the cartoon characters from the Guiness commercial, smiling manically and shouting to each other while toasting and eating a dish of homemade pasta with pine nuts in brown butter.

The food has just enough fat to let the cut of the wine take hold and the pasta/pine nut flavors are calm enough so that the lovely fruit and mineral tones of the wine slide across the palate with intensity and a long reprise after swallowing.

Simple fare with great wine.

9.5% alcohol, $16.

“Brilliant!”

Best, Jim

[docsconz]

These are lovely wines. Do you have any particularly favorite vintages?

[Florida Jim]

These are lovely wines. Do you have any particularly favorite vintages?

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I liked 2000 as well as any, but for me, picking vintages with this house is truly splitting hairs.

Best, Jim

[Gavin Convery]

Slighty up the price point from Donnhoff is Oberhauser Leistenberg Kabinett. A little bit more elegant, sweeter, less minerally but perfectly balanced - a favourite of mine.

[DonRocks]

These are lovely wines. Do you have any particularly favorite vintages?

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94, 95 (very acidic right now) 96 (except the Norheimer Kirschheck Spatlese which was inexplicably dilute), 97 (brilliant), 98 (need more time), 99 (a miracle), 01 (long-term classics), 02 (also brilliant). I'm not a huge fan of the 00s, not even the great Niederhauser Hermannshohle Spatlese (the auction Oberhauser Brucke Spatlese somehow managed to overcome the problems of that vintage). Terry Theise swears up-and-down that the best 03s are going to be better than the best 59s, but I don't plan on being around to find out.

The QbA Riesling used to come entirely from the Niederhauser Felsenberg vineyard, but is now blended with a second vineyard, the Oberhauser Kieselberg. This inexpensive gem is, in-and-of-itself, sufficient reason to believe in God.

Cheers,

Rocks.