Dönnhoff Riesling Trocken Norheimer Dellchen GG 2021

The Wine Advocate
RP100

Stephan Reinhardt : Sourced from slate and volcanic soils, the Dellchen GG 2021 opens with a radiant, bright, pure and mineral bouquet, bringing fascinating, refined and subtle notes of mirabelle plum and Amalfi lemon, elegantly intertwined with slate ‘nuances’. For me, this bouquet is heavenly (and believe me, it will be for all true Riesling lovers). Mahler’s 8th Symphony, Faust’s Ascension—it’s all here. Subtle intensity, a sense of wonder, a natural beauty perfectly intertwined. This aroma says it all, and I couldn’t move on to the next wine for over half an hour.

On the palate, this is a subtle and delicate Riesling, highly refined but also incredibly intense, lush and minerally. It has a long, saline and always vibrant finish, with perfectly ripe and juicy fruit complemented by fine tannins. It is a juicy, ripe wine, with crystal clear acidity and infinite salinity that supports everything. This Dellchen is intense, but never heavy—on the contrary, its intensity only increases. This is an impeccable Riesling, highly exciting. It is not only the most beautiful Dellchen I have ever tasted, but also the most fascinating dry Riesling I have ever tasted. This is pure art. A lovely wine, full of soul. It cannot be expensive enough. When Helmut Dönnhoff mentioned the feminine, charming and delicate character of this cru, all of that is reflected here. Declared alcohol content: 13%. Natural cork stopper. Tasted at the winery in July 2022.

The year 2021 marks the return of a classic vintage after a long time—something that Cornelius Dönnhoff had not experienced before this century. For his father, Helmut, a late harvest, between October and November, was a common occurrence. The harvest at Dönnhoff took place about two to three weeks later than in recent years, following a period without heat waves but with frequent rain and no storms. The biggest challenge of the harvest was downy mildew, which required meticulous control of the vineyard and careful management of the foliage to keep it ventilated and healthy. Without this care, in addition to a late harvest, the physiological ripeness of the grapes would not have been achieved in 2021.

Harvesting began in the last week of September and continued until the second week of November, when the nights were already quite cold. The musts had low sugar levels, but the grapes were ripe despite their high acidity. The highly skilled Dönnhoff team managed to harvest each vineyard at the right time. Since there was practically no botrytis in the central Nahe region, it was not possible to produce Beerenauslesen and Trockenbeerenauslesen, only Eiswein.

The musts, cooled by the cold nights, could be processed without rushing.

The fact that the 2021 wines did not require any residual sugar to balance the high acidity (10 g/L) surprised even the Dönnhoff team at the start of the harvest. However, some of the acidity was precipitated as tartar, making the wines more ripe and rounded on the palate than expected in the autumn. To naturally buffer the acidity (with potassium and calcium), the musts were kept on the extract-rich grapes for longer than usual. In this way, the tartaric acid found binding elements and could be partially precipitated, provided the wine had enough time to evolve.

The vintage results were exceptional, especially at Dönnhoff, especially in the Grosses Gewächs and Auslese categories. I tasted Dellchen's GG at the perfect time in late July, and four weeks later in Wiesbaden the wine still impressed me.