Handford Wines, London
Tasted Thursday, May 2, 2013 by Papies with 1,019 views
Cornelius Donnhoff might not be the most eloquent wine producer but definitely among the most open and clear when it comes to speaking about wines. Straight shooting, no BS, no flamboyant rants. Passionate and keen to open up a discussion, he asked as many questions as we asked him. No preaching here either and the terms that epitomised the discussion was “wine is a drink and much be enjoyable” as well as “I make wines that I also like myself”
A few notes on recent vintages:
2012 – Ripe yet with good acidity and carries the sweetness very well. Good for aging. Interesting note here is that in 2012 they had NO botrytis so the Auslese+ wines were made from very ripe sun facing grapes rather than noble rot grapes. Actually the 2012 Auslese we tried below was something special and very different.
2011 – A great year, good ripeness, good balance. Not so high in acidity
2010 – A special vintage and maybe a once in a lifetime, CD believes he will never see this again, as the grapes had a lot of ripeness, high sugars yet very high acidity. Both Sugars and Acity were turned to 11!. 2010s would make for very long maturity.
2008 – A very cool year, to the point that they only made Spatleses. Spatlese wine benefited from having all the attention
2003 – The hottest vintage here too. Low acidity and the wines feel (see the 2003 below) light and with low vitality yet they have matured and held up very well.
His Philosophy on aging:
3 phases in his wines (Sweet ones).
Phase 1: ~ 1-3 years old – Fresh, primary, fruit driven
Phase 2: ~ 3-6 years old. Wines retrace and sort of close down
Phase 3: 7yr + wines re emerge with evolution and more secondary characteristics
Goldcaps/Auctions & all that Jazz. He only makes one wine every year so unlike Mosel there is no Auslese, Auslese gold cap and long caps etc. Usually the Ausleses all have gold caps. When they make small quantities of a wine they would usually send it for auctions.
All in all a very interesting tasting not so much for the wines tasted but for the vintage variations. Not so much an eye opener in the different vineyard characteristics. We found it difficult to rate the wines and in most cases we did not rate them as the wines were too young and as with many sweet wine tastings palate fatigue settles in quickly . Still we liked them all!
Ironically we pretty much spent our 2012 EP budget on buying old and new German Rieslings as we found the 2012 Bordeaux EP campaign a bad and sad Joke.
2011 Dönnhoff Riesling Tonschiefer trocken 87 Points
Germany, Nahe
On the ripe side with a floral nose, light orange hint. Shy nose though (especially vs the its sweeter cousins and its brother from 2012). Young wine firm and 12.5% Alc. Good wine. 87
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2012 Dönnhoff Riesling Tonschiefer trocken
Germany, Nahe
Just bottled and not on sale yet. Nose is more green apple, open nose, light floral too mineral. On the palate it still has the “fizziness“ of just being bottled. Firm, higher acidity as per 2012 vintage. Fresh and powerful wine with a nice sweet undertone. Good wine.
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