2022 Riesling Roxheimer Höllenpfad

Dönnhoff is one of Germany’s best wine estates. First father Helmut and now son Cornelius Dönnhoff have presented stellar Riesling collections year after year, expressing their manifold sites with much precision, exacting clarity and genuine tension. Helmut took over his parental estate in 1971 and understood that the steep, sloping areas were far more suited to his vision than the flatter vineyards that were easy to farm. His preference and foresight, along with those of his ancestors, explain the portfolio of outstanding sites that include no fewer than nine Grosse Lagen, including the monopole of Oberhäuser Brücke. The remaining eight Grosse Lagen are Oberhäuser Leistenberg, Schlossböckelheimer Felsenberg, Niederhäuser Hermannshöhle, Norheimer Dellchen and Kirschheck, Bad Kreuznacher Kahlenberg and Krötenpfuhl and Roxheimer Höllenpfad. Cornelius Dönnhoff, who trained in Baden, Australia (with Jeffrey Grosset) and New Zealand, has made the wines since 2007 and has since insisted on a bone-dry style. Absolutely healthy grapes are de rigueur for the dry wines. They operate three inert presses, and the fruit is crushed only slightly before being placed in the presses. Most of the skin contact thus takes place during the slow press cycle. There are no rules on destemming or whole bunch, either. Everything is decided batch by batch, there and then, by father and son, depending on acidity. Most musts start fermenting on their own. Those that do not are inoculated with cultured yeast. There are no rules on stainless steel or oak. Helmut Dönnhoff points out that they have the same capacity in steel and oak, both Stück and Doppelstück, so they never have to decide based on fermentation vessel availability. As a rule, the GGs are fermented in wood and stay on gross lees until June and in stainless steel for another four weeks before bottling. The Dönnhoffs started the 2022 harvest with Pinot Blanc and Pinot Gris on 12 September – the earliest ever for these varieties – while the Riesling harvest began on 24 September, once the weather had turned, with the main Riesling harvest taking place in the first two weeks of October, finishing on 18 October.