Donnhoff Riesling QBA, Nahe 9.5%

Description

Donnhoff Riesling QBA is an off-dry style of white wine and is a great entry point to the wines of Helmut Donnhoff.

The Donnhoff first family bought a modest estate in the Nahe in the 1750s. In 1971 current owner, Helmut Donnhoff produced his first vintage and has not looked back since.  Helmut Dönnhoff has been making the wine since 1966, and now his son Cornelius is the 4th generation to run this historic winery and their 25 hectares of Erste Lage, or grand cru vineyards. Donnhoff are a regular on the shortlist of German Winemaker of the Year” and were the actual winner in 1999. Helmut’s work is helping the Nahe to take a share of the plaudits showered on the more internationally renowned German wine regions of the Mosel and the Rheingau. His cool, calm demeanour is a stark contrast to the demonic fervour with which he tends his vineyards.

For Donnhoff’s wines, only the best hand-picked fruit will do, in order to produce wines that are honest reflections of the Riesling grape and the terroir its planted in whether it be the volcanic soils of the Kupfergrube (copper mine), the deep, cool Brucke, the slate/sandstone Hermanshöhle or the slate of the Leistenberg (leiste is an old German word for slate). Fermentation is in the traditional large old wooden casks and there is a light filtration before bottling. Some of Germany’s most intense, bewitching and mouth-watering wines.

Donnhoff Riesling QBA is made from fruit sourced from the steeply sloping vineyards, mainly the Kieselberg vineyard near Oberhauser, in the middle of Nahe region. The vines grow in stony, weathered volcanic soils of porphyry and melaphyr in particular, with certain amounts of slate and quartzite. Fermented and matured in stainless steel vats and large oak barrels. Off-dry finish.