2015 Riesling trocken

“When a year like 2014 gets discussed with journalists the word ‘difficult’ crops up repeatedly and that is what sticks in their minds and gets brought to bear when tasting,” notes Helmut Dönnhoff. “But 2015 was definitely not difficult! There wasn’t the difficulty of separating what [fruit] was good from what was bad. It was like in a school book illustration: ‘this is how ripe Riesling grapes are supposed to look.’” Dönnhoff grants that there was some drought stress, but only, he maintains, with very young vines. The main harvest took place from the end of the first week in October until the end of that month. That might seem like a relatively short time in which to finish, given that there was no rush. But, as Dönnhoff explains, “the weather was so good that we were able to harvest virtually every single day during that period. There was just one day,” he claims “when it rained a bit, but only enough to dampen the streets. Each day you could calmly plan what you were going to do the next. We did perform a pre-harvest selection as usual to cull any inferior fruit. But that went very rapidly. In Hermannshöhle it wasn’t even work, really – more just cosmetic. If we’d done nothing at that stage it probably wouldn’t have made any difference. If anything it was less a matter of removing inferior bunches than of dropping the whole crop from those few vines that looked less healthy. By contrast, at that same initial stage in 2014 we had begun thinking ‘at this rate we’re liable to discard half the harvest!’ There was no explosion of botrytis. Rather, what little there was dried nicely and you could easily recognize what to pick for nobly sweet wine.”

Helmut Dönnhoff perceives his recent crops of dry Riesling – for which, like all of the wines, his son Cornelius is overwhelmingly responsible in the cellar – as reflecting an attempt “to make a more puristic Riesling,” an aim – and phraseology – shared by a great many if not the majority of those German Riesling growers on whom I report. “To make such naked wines as these,” Dönnhoff senior avers, “you have to have the right material.” I would merely counter that I don’t consider nakedness in itself a virtue, and occasionally there are dry Dönnhoff Rieslings that I find myself wishing would display a bit more charm, a virtue hardly incompatible with precision, purity and mineral complexity. Certainly as regards the value of potential alcohol, Helmut Dönnhoff recognizes that “it’s not a bad thing that what were once our dreams are not being fulfilled” in that must weights in the mid-to-upper-nineties rather than a once sought-after hundred-plus are quite sufficient for dry Riesling. That realization partly explains why in 2015, he admits that picking began at least a little earlier than it would have if the same conditions had been present a decade ago, or indeed as it would have had he alone been calling the shots. But then, in view of how things turned out for growers who waited even longer to begin picking, it is far from certain that must weights would have risen significantly. The 2015 Grosse Gewächse here stayed on their full lees until just ahead of their mid-summer bottling which, as Helmut Dönnhoff points out, represents a radical divergence from the repeated rackings practiced by top Nahe estates back when he was training in the 1960s. (Time constraints unfortunately precluded my tasting of Dönnhoffs Pinot Blanc and Pinot Gris bottlings of the 2015 vintage. For more about recent developments at this estate, consult the introduction to my account of its 2014s.)

“When a year like 2014 gets discussed with journalists the word ‘difficult’ crops up repeatedly and that is what sticks in their minds and gets brought to bear when tasting,” notes Helmut Dönnhoff. “But 2015 was definitely not difficult! There wasn’t the difficulty of separating what [fruit] was good from what was bad. It was like in a school book illustration: ‘this is how ripe Riesling grapes are supposed to look.’” Dönnhoff grants that there was some drought stress, but only, he maintains, with very young vines. The main harvest took place from the end of the first week in October until the end of that month. That might seem like a relatively short time in which to finish, given that there was no rush. But, as Dönnhoff explains, “the weather was so good that we were able to harvest virtually every single day during that period. There was just one day,” he claims “when it rained a bit, but only enough to dampen the streets. Each day you could calmly plan what you were going to do the next. We did perform a pre-harvest selection as usual to cull any inferior fruit. But that went very rapidly. In Hermannshöhle it wasn’t even work, really – more just cosmetic. If we’d done nothing at that stage it probably wouldn’t have made any difference. If anything it was less a matter of removing inferior bunches than of dropping the whole crop from those few vines that looked less healthy. By contrast, at that same initial stage in 2014 we had begun thinking ‘at this rate we’re liable to discard half the harvest!’ There was no explosion of botrytis. Rather, what little there was dried nicely and you could easily recognize what to pick for nobly sweet wine.”

Helmut Dönnhoff perceives his recent crops of dry Riesling – for which, like all of the wines, his son Cornelius is overwhelmingly responsible in the cellar – as reflecting an attempt “to make a more puristic Riesling,” an aim – and phraseology – shared by a great many if not the majority of those German Riesling growers on whom I report. “To make such naked wines as these,” Dönnhoff senior avers, “you have to have the right material.” I would merely counter that I don’t consider nakedness in itself a virtue, and occasionally there are dry Dönnhoff Rieslings that I find myself wishing would display a bit more charm, a virtue hardly incompatible with precision, purity and mineral complexity. Certainly as regards the value of potential alcohol, Helmut Dönnhoff recognizes that “it’s not a bad thing that what were once our dreams are not being fulfilled” in that must weights in the mid-to-upper-nineties rather than a once sought-after hundred-plus are quite sufficient for dry Riesling. That realization partly explains why in 2015, he admits that picking began at least a little earlier than it would have if the same conditions had been present a decade ago, or indeed as it would have had he alone been calling the shots. But then, in view of how things turned out for growers who waited even longer to begin picking, it is far from certain that must weights would have risen significantly. The 2015 Grosse Gewächse here stayed on their full lees until just ahead of their mid-summer bottling which, as Helmut Dönnhoff points out, represents a radical divergence from the repeated rackings practiced by top Nahe estates back when he was training in the 1960s. (Time constraints unfortunately precluded my tasting of Dönnhoffs Pinot Blanc and Pinot Gris bottlings of the 2015 vintage. For more about recent developments at this estate, consult the introduction to my account of its 2014s.)