Posted from CellarTracker
Sounds real nice, David.
I had an '07 GG from Donnhoff a bit over a year ago, and it was glorious as well…the Felsenturmchen, I think.
I was pleasantly surprised that it was so damn good, the track record for ageing GGs not being too established yet…
Plenty in the tank, all on balance…
That would be the same wine.
As for track record, dry Riesling has a centuries long tradition.
I think it’s at least fair to say wines like the GGs we know today, in terms of quality and style, have been produced since the late '80s/early '90s by producers like Burklin-Wolf and Georg Breuer. I don’t know of any before that time. Maybe you do, or someone else here might? When did Donnhoff get going with such a focus on top quality dry wines? Early 2000s? I think by the late '90s there were quite a few producers making such wines, right? So that’s 20+ years ago. I’m sure if you go back before the modern time there were great dry German Rieslings that aged well, but do any still exist? It’s probably impossible to know what they were like and how they aged.
The Hermannshohle GG goes back to 2003. I still have a bottle that I will include in a vertical sometime in the relatively near (post-COVID) future. Let me know if you want in.
Prior to that the Hermannshohle Spatlese Trocken was seriously high quality dry Riesling. There were others at Donnhoff, but I don’t have detailed information.
The production of serious dry German Riesling in the modern mold does only go back to the late 1980s or so in any quantity (no doubt Martin Zwick will have more accurate info), but my point is that in general dry Riesling ages very well. Alsace has proven that. While the precise profiles of dry German Riesling are different from those in Alsace, they are not so different as to be unreliable as historical indicators IMO.
What’s the difference between the ne you mention and their Felsenberg Riesling Trochen?
The GG bottling has the “best” grapes, or grapes from the “best” vineyard parcel(s). A producer cannot make a GG and a pradikat designated dry wine (e.g. spatlese trocken) from the same site. So the tier down from the GG is just the Felsenberg Trocken.
I do! I have some vintages I could provide, or I could bring some other GGs for comparison.
Agreed. Plus, the leaner, more historical Alsatian style, which Trimbach still produces, is quite similar to what some producers in the Pfalz are putting out, to my taste. Especially Burklin-Wolf.
I have a couple of 90 Donnhoff Felsenberg Spat Trocken.
JB Becker has made trocken wines going back to the 70s. His 89 Auslese Trocken was probably close to a modern day GG in style and quality.
Burkin-Wolf made Trockens in the 70s.
Most 80s and earlier Trockens with the exception of JB Becker that I have had were disappointments.
Robert - I have forgotten, but when the Kohler-Ruprecht start making serious dry wines?
Thanks! Hope it’s almost as good as your GG!
Thanks for the context. Your experience with the earlier versions fits with what I’ve read, that the wines were generally not great by present day standards. I think wines like '12 Donnhoff Hermannshohle and many Breuer Schlossbergs are in it for the long haul. Even “off” vintages of Burklin-Wolf Kirchenstuck and Gaisbohl from the late '90s have been great at 15+ years, with life ahead of them. Donnhoff’s '07 Hermannshohle is just starting to show development. '07 Keller Abtserde was pretty much still youthful when I had it maybe a year ago. It will be interesting to see where all of this goes. While I wish the trend in Germany hadn’t pushed back so hard against the sweeter styles, maybe having so many great dry wines is a happy consequence (recognizing that was not the only factor leading to how many great dry wines there are).