Donnhoff’s 2006 Niederhauser Hermannshohle Riesling Auslese introduces a caramelization of fruit and a roasted richness that represent a more obvious expression of botrytis, yet the springs of acidity are incredibly tightly-wound as well and there is absolutely no sense of heaviness. One can taste the effect of botrytis that was being constantly ventilated in the best portions of this great site, concentrating all components, including acidity, while juicy berries also still abounded. The fruitcake metaphor is overused and fails to capture the appropriate sense of levity, fluidity, and elegance. Suffice it to say that dried fruits, toasted nuts, citrus rind, honey, white raisin, baking spices, spiritous fruit essences, and singed, caramelized notes all abound, and that the less prosaic layers of this masterpiece – for lack of better words, the meat and mineral dimensions – are only revealed for now to the limited degree that time in the glass permits. The finish finds me licking my lips clean of mysteriously savory, salty residues. Voluminous and dense yet refined and elegant; baroque yet constructed like one of the great pyramids; viscously rich yet dynamic, this will stand – perhaps for half a century – as a monument to its vintner, site and vintage. “I was amazed when the 2006s tasted as good as I had said they might become,” says Helmut Donnhoff. “It turned out what we vintners always said about Riesling – that’s it’s ideally suited to our clime – is true. I guess I didn’t really didn’t believe that in quite complete seriousness. I ran around the cellar like a crazy man, tasting back and forth” in excitement as the quality of this latest collection became evident. Sample it starting almost anywhere, and you’ll be a believer, too. “If there is one vintage I could compare with this, it would be 1971 as I remember it, with this perfect tension between acid and sugar, this clarity, a bit of botrytis but not stinky, completely clear and mineral, structured, architectural.” In the 21 years I have been visiting him, I have never known Helmut Donnhoff to permit himself such superlatives. “We set the record, harvesting everything in two weeks,” he adds. Trying to handle so many sites needing so much selection in so short a time “was close to the limit, and we managed it only because I have really good people” picking. This year, Donnhoff added to his line-up vineyards in two of the three traditionally top sites of Bad Kreuznach, parcels whose purchase in 2003 he had kept under wraps until now. On the one hand he felt that acquiring parcels another step downstream and in his “home city” and which – like those in Norheim – had once been proudly maintained by “wine nobility” but more recently neglected, followed a theme and closed a circle. “I see myself in the line of cellar-masters who were my mentors. If I didn’t do it,” he says, “there was nobody else left.” On the other hand, he had in mind that vineyards “not quite so close to my heart,” but still top quality (“because a lousy vineyard and a good vineyard take the same amount of work”) could be employed to increase volumes of his generic Riesling. As soon as he tasted the first young wines, he knew they were not destined for blending away! In virtually any other vintage, his top 2006 Auslesen would have been Beerenauslesen, Donnhoff points out, and I have to admit I wondered whether the wines that followed – even if considered virtual Trockenbeerenauslesen – could represent an ascent. “One sees the botrytis during the harvest and one senses the possibilities. But one also knows what can happen if bad weather comes. And all of the vineyards were ripening at the same time. Sweet, dry, botrytized, all were possible at the same time. In principle, I would have had to harvest everything on the same day, which is impossible, crazy. Of course, you could have pushed things to the limit and harvested T.B.A. – I know I can make one at the highest level – but my story, my love is here,” says Donnhoff, stretching his hands over the bottles of Spatlese and Auslese lined up on the table.” That represents my dream, and anything that jeopardizes it must be set aside. I’ll always forgo the extra 10% of opulence.” Hence, although at one point a start was made on berries for T.B.A., in the end, only two truly botrytis-dominated wines, both Beerenauslesen, were picked.Importer: Terry Theise Estate Selections, imported by Michael Skurnik Wines, Inc., Syosset, NY; tel (516) 677-9300
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