Beyond Hermannshöhle
2009 Dönnhoff DELLCHEN Grosses Gewächs

"A great wine." - John Gilman, View from the Cellar

Little can be said about Helmut Dönnhoff that isn't already widely known: He's one of Germany's greatest winemakers, a legend alongside Manfred Prüm and Egon Müller.

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.

2010 Dönnhoff MAGNUMS
Spätlese and Grosses Gewächs
SPECIAL OFFER ONLY FOR DÖNNHOFF BUYERS

Dönnhoff is great, we all know it - so today let's just focus on the fact that Riesling magnums are perhaps the coolest looking bottles in the world.

They look like Brancusi-esque sculptures - Bird in Flight filled with 1.5 liters of the purest, most noble wine out there.

As we wrote on Saturday, in the email featuring Dönnhoff's sweet wines, 2011 really is the perfect vintage at the perfect time. It is juicy and charming, with a lithe but very present acidity that keeps the fruit tones bright and the feel of the wines light.

I was blown away by the collection at Dönnhoff this year - the dry wines no less than the sweet.

2009 Emrich-Schönleber Frühlingsplätzchen Trocken

"2009 may well be remembered generations hence by the monumental quality of the dry Rieslings this year... I have never tasted a greater set of dry Rieslings from Germany." -John Gilman, View from the Cellar

Even in the context of Gilman's quote, above, and the fact that I called Emrich-Schönleber's 2009 dry Riesling "Mineral" my Wine of the Year last year, I'm shocked by how good the Schönleber 2009ers are.

The Halenberg vineyard faces south, a sloped site of vines planted in stony blue slate and quartzite. Halenberg wines are fragrant and compelling, energetic, lean and poised. They speak more to refinement and elegance, as opposed to the complex expressions of minerality born from the Felseneck.

Few wines manage such saturation, such compact density and astounding depth in such a razor-sharp, delineated format. The 2011 Felseneck simply explodes in a juicy, precise fury of mineral, zested slate both polished and pulverized, crisp, ripe citrus and stone fruit. This wine shimmers.

We've been huge fans of Schäfer-Fröhlich's 2011 Felseneck GG for quite some time. Below is an offer that Stephen penned last June.

To be honest, we never felt that this wine received the proper attention. After Schildknect's glowing review, it felt like time to revisit Schäfer-Fröhlich's incredible 2011 Felseneck.

The Felseneck is Tim's calling card - this is the vineyard that has made his reputation, a site that delivers one of the most complex expressions of minerality in the Nahe. This is the vineyard for purists.

The Greatest Dry German Riesling of 2010?
2010 Schäfer-Fröhlich Felseneck GG
*Special Futures Pricing Good Until Monday Only*

I have never before experienced such gushing and unanimous praise for a single bottle of wine.

I think there is little doubt that Felseneck is one of the monuments of 2010, if it is not simply the top dry Riesling the vintage (for that measure, only time will tell).