Grand Cru Dry Wines of Helmut Dönnhoff
2010 Dönnhoff "Grosses Gewächs"
Hermannshöhle - Felsentürmchen - Dellchen
Special German "Futures" Pricing
"This is a very, very strong vintage for this consistently excellent estate." - John Gilman, View from the Cellar
Dönnhoff is the elder statesman of the Nahe; he is also one of Germany's greatest winemakers. In all honestly, I'm sort of surprised Gilman only used two "verys" in describing the strength of his 2010ers.
Dönnhoff's Rieslings are, year in and year out, some of the most inspiring Rieslings made in Germany; the style is deep, fruit forward yet sparkling in clarity and purity. This is a term that's way overused, but the wines are flawless. They are seductive and feminine and meditative yet also mineral and rigorous.
How's this for a line? Dönnhoff's wines always have everything. That's about it... but that's a lot.
Today we're thrilled to offer out Dönnhoff's three "Grand Cru" dry Rieslings, the "Grosses Gewächs" as they are called in German. The pricing is as lean as you've come to expect from our futures pricing.
As I've written before, 2010 in Germany is an extreme vintage - record high ripeness levels matched to record high acidities, meaning these wines have everything and you can taste it. (I'm sorry, I'm still working on the vintage report... it's been a busy week!)
Dönnhoff's wines have a huge reputation, so I'll keep it short today. It's a Saturday after all. But a few things are worth considering...
First, this is a very short vintage, with quantities dramatically down. For the moment, our 2010 allocation is about half of what we received in 2009.
Second, while the Hermannshöhle is the star of the show and the most complete wine year after year, it really is a mistake to skip the other two vineyards. For the sake of balance, diversity, for the sake of terroir people, we highly recommend the three-pack purchase.
This gets you a discount and it gets you one bottle of each of the Grand Crus. That's good.
As I stated last year, the Dellchen is my personal favorite - in 2009 the wine was absolutely blazing - fiercely mineral. It's interesting to note that Gilman gives the Dellchen special praise in 2010. The rise of a new star? We'll see...
This is it people - Dönnhoff 2010. Unlikely to come around again... To order, please email us at offers@crushwineco.com or call the store at (212) 980-9463. Keep in mind you may not hear from us until Monday.
Stephen Bitterolf
Wine Director
Crush Wine & Spirits
2010 Dönnhoff Grosses Grosses Gewächs
2010 Dönnhoff Mixed Grosses Gewächs Three-Pack
Special Futures Price: $174.97
1 x 2010 Dellchen GG @ $57.99
1 x 2010 Felstürmchen GG @ $56.99
1 x 2010 Hermannshöhle GG @ $59.99
2010 Dönnhoff Dellchen Grosses Gewächs (Grand Cru Dry)
Special Futures Price: $59.95
Preference given to balanced orders including all of the Grosses Gewachs!
John Gilman, View from the Cellar: "The 2010 Dellchen Grosses Gewächs is very refined and elegant this year, with the usual power of this vineyard coming across as brilliant intensity of flavor. The bouquet is deep and very classy, as it jumps from the glass in a blaze of tart orange, lime, grapefruit, petrol, crystalline minerality and orange zest. On the palate the wine is deep, full-bodied and beautifully complex, with fine mid-palate depth, excellent focus and balance and a very, very long, tensile finish. This will be an extremely long-lived Dellchen Grosses Gewächs."
2010 Dönnhoff Felsenberg "Felsentürmchen" GG (Grand Cru Dry)
Special Futures Price: $58.95
Preference given to balanced orders including all of the Grosses Gewachs!
John Gilman, View from the Cellar: "The 2010 Felsenberg Grosses Gewächs bottling all hails from the Türmchen section of the vineyard and is excellent in this vintage. The superb bouquet offers up scents of white cherries, sweet grapefruit, very complex stoniness, petrol, citrus peel and a distinctly smoky topnote. On the palate the wine is deep, full-bodied and utterly seamless, with a rock solid core of fruit, great focus and cut, lovely balance and excellent grip on the long and tensile finish. In comparison to the Felsenberg Trocken, here the snappy acids are even better integrated into the body of the wine and even more completely buffered by dry extract. A very impressive bottle."
2010 Dönnhoff Hermannshöhle GG (Grand Cru Dry)
Special Futures Price: $62.95
John Gilman, View from the Cellar: "In 2010, the Hermannshöhle Grosses Gewächs is the top dry Riesling in the cellar, but it is a very close race between this and the stunning Dellchen. The deep and beautifully complex bouquet on the Hermannshöhle delivers scents of pink grapefruit, lemon peel, wild yeasts, incipient notes of petrol and a stunningly complex base of minerality. On the palate the wine is full-bodied, tight and tensile, with a rock solid core of fruit, laser-like focus and great length and grip on the very mineral-driven finish. All three of the Grosses Gewächs bottlings in the Dönnhoff cellars this year show beautiful acid integration, as the snappy acids are seamlessly woven into the body of the wine without losing any cut or precision on the backend. This is no small feat in 2010!"
2010 Dönnhoff GGs are released, by law, after September 1
Expected arrival: Fall 2011
Net / No Further Discounts