Schöne, zurückgenommene tropische Frucht. Intensive Süße, aber ebenfalls nicht plakativ, sondern sehr harmonisch eingebunden. Es fehlt ein klein wenig mehr Säure, um sich der Süße entgegenzustellen. 20 Jahre Reife in keiner Weise schmeckbar, präsentiert sich immer noch sehr lebendig!
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AP1904. 375 ml Golden colour. Dry and mineral, a wee bit smoky with great depth. Fine acidity and balance, and of course sweetness, but this seems to have arrived. #ThankGodItsFriday
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Blind. Pale straw. Wonderful nose, and similar palate — sweet but excellent acidity that has really come to play and carries the wine through its long finish with impeccable balance. Couldn’t be anything other than a higher pradikat wine, and I immediately go to 03 Donnhoff. I’ve been consistently impressed by the 03s here, the richness beautifully integrated with acidity that might have been tame initially but that has come in to balance nicely over the past decade. Enough sweetness to cope with a lovely apple tart, but so fresh and zingy with it. One to happily sip on its own as it matures further. AP…1904. ****
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I'm a Donnhoff nut and I've enjoyed squirreling away a few of the Goldkapsel 'dessert' wines. Find I reach more often for Sauternes as I really want to let the Rieslings age. But (finally) had a few friends over after quarantine for a distanced patio gathering and was closing out the night with a few hard cheeses. The '03 vintage was so hot/rich thought it might be in an approachable spot. This was enjoyable. Golden but not syrupy, nice stone fruit and a touch of tropical fruit notes. Light mouthfeel. Good on its own as a sipper but also played well against the marcona almonds and apricots on the cheese plate. Not as good with the cheeses themselves. This can hold for some time give the structure.
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Being Social While Distancing: Medium deep gold color. Drank a small glass from 375ml. This is lovely, deep and rich, ripe apple, pineapple, honey and fusil, slate, medium acidity, great oily texture and long. Thanks Brian!
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From a perfect looking bottle, This wine had a yellow center and clear rims (looking quite young). The medium intensity nose emanated pear, quince, apple, and minerals.
In the mouth, this wine was ripe and rich. At first it had low acidity but you could sense it below the mass of fruit. As the wine aired it slowly developed more backbone. After 5 hours, this wine had gorgeous balance and outstanding length.
While I might prefer this wine with more age on it, it was certainly drinking with extended aeration. It is hard to judge at this point how good it might get but I would bet on a couple extra points.
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Difficult to judge even at thirteen years of age. Supersaturated as one might expect given the style and vintage, and yet still displaying reasonable balance. 89-90?
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Chicago ♥ Dönnhoff (Chicago, IL): #19-04, 8% abv. From half-bottle. Producer, producer, producer. The 2003s from Doennhoff don't suck. The Hermannshoehle I had a few months back and this bottle demonstrate that fact. A somewhat muted nose that wasn't giving very much. The palate definitely comes off with a bit of that rich oily texture that such a ripe wine would inevitably have. However, despite that, the balance on this is commendable. Yes, the acidity is low, but only in the context of Doennhoff wines -- there's plenty to keep everything fresh and far from cloying. This does come off as a bit monolithic now, and I've no doubt this will get a lot better with some more time.
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Christmas & New Year 2013; 12/20/2013-1/1/2014: Curious, and slightly unfortunate cheesy nose. This is underpinned with a touch of grapefruit, and honeyed passion fruit. The sweetness is starting to come through as it begins to fill out on the palate. Long. ****
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Meh. Kind of boring really. Pleasant to drink, but no depth or soul or zest. OTOH, rinsing the glass with 21 yr old rum and topping with a few oz of this was delightful.
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Dinner @ R&Y (R&Y): Blind. Half. Pale colour. Riesling nose, hints of ripeness and of grapefruit on ye nose. Not showing much complexity at the moment, or indeed much sweetness (100-120 g RS), but this has wonderful balance, no sense of 2003 blowsiness or over ripeness. Impeccable poise. This could be really special as it starts to develop complexity and to mature though its teenage years. Very promising. **(**) Turns out that this is showing consistently with my note of a couple of years ago.
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Dönnhoff Tasting with Helmut Dönnhoff (Taberna Wine Bar, Singapore): Dark yellow. Nose is ripe and very alluring. Palate as expected from the vintage was ripe and intense. Some might feel that it is clunky but I like the character here. Good freshness coupled with great concentration. A little matured flavors here and could easily be mistaken for a Beerenauslese.
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Taste: honey, a touch of viscosity, bold flavours. Hints of spiced warm fruit. Drinking very nicely now. A warm vintage but still exudes balance and class.
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Remarkable for an '03; very pure, refreshing and light with ripe peach, melon and apple fruit framed by minerally and floral elements. There's a sense of real freshness and brightness to the flavours with more acidity than I'd expect in the vintage, and great balance.
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From half bottle, bought on closeout. Deep gold color. Whoever remarked recently that the best 2003 German Rieslings are slimming down and becoming much more interesting really nailed this wine. A whiff of petrol on the perfumed nose; nicely ripe, apple-tinged fruit; deep and long on the mineral-laced palate. It's not delicate, but not heavy or ponderous either. Classic Auslese sweetness. Perhaps a touch more mature than one would expect, but maybe this is because it was a half bottle that had been on a store shelf a while.
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Ledbury with B&A and R&Y (The Ledbury, London): Half bottle. Pale colour. Nose a little mute initially, palate also quite simplistic; comments of sugar-water etc round the table. So, slearly in a slightly difficult phase having lost the exuberant sweetness and flesh of youth but not yet showing the interesting development and complexity that I think it will. Over about 90minutes in the glass the nose started opening up and gaining complexity, citrus fruit starting to open to something more exotic. The palate was initialy quite lean and not much sweeter than off-dry. No sign of at least 100 of the 120g RS this posseses. However, it did start to sweeten and become more expressive in the glass with air and I think it's all there. Decant for a day or two or cellar for a decade or two. One thing that's evident on this showing - superb balance and a minerality and precission that can't hurt its longer term prospects. Lovely wine but don't aste by opening one at the moment unless you're planning to follow it through a full day of development. A bit of a guess but **(**+?)
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From 375ml, very nice. Pale gold, lighter than I expected. Nice crisp pear not too tart, but very smooth and drinkable. Seems less mature than some auslese, and the body is a bit lighter than I expected. This is just smooth and very very drinkable. Worth seeking out.
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From the nose you can't tell it's an Auslese. Pretty lime, apple and mineral nose. No botrytis evident. However, this stuff absolutely explodes on the palate with an intense, beautiful acid-sweetness balance, one of the best I've ever experienced. Really wonderful stuff. The flavour profile is the usual tropical fruits, lime and apple but it is the power, grace and balance of this wine that makes it so exceptional.
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CellarTracker Five Year Anniversary (Seattle, WA, USA): From 375ml. Mmm, this is like green apples dipped in a bit of honey. The first impression is one of richness, but, despite the 2003 heritage, this has plenty of acidity. The more time i spend with it the more refreshing it seems. I expected this might be somewhat flaccid, but this is really quite stellar. There is very good minerality beneath the fruit, but this is basically unformed right now, just a huge block of delicious potential. Hints of honey, fruit, tart apple and some petrol. Delicious to suck down now. Probably decades from really strutting. I had 6 half bottles, so I have no regrets about baby killing one now to check in.
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Popped and poured. Beautiful, elegant nose of freshly cut open pineapple and mango with a perfume-like, floral base and hints of classic Riesling "petrol". The wine is sweet on the palate but not cloying or over the top. Much like the natural sweetness of pure, fresh pineapple juice as opposed to the juices in grocery stores that are enhanced with added sugar. Fresh pineapples, tropical fruits and a smooth, creamy mouth feel make this wine extremely easy to drink. Sauternes like mouth feel but obviously not as sweet. Crisp acidity leaves your palate watering for another delicious sip and removes any of the "back of the throat burn" experienced in some Rieslings. Perfect balance. Great complement to a fresh apple crumble desert with generous amounts of cinnamon and real vanilla ice cream. Expensive but worth the money for a special occasion. This is a fantastic bottle of wine drinking in its prime right now with no signs of slowing down soon. (CMS A+)
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Fresh and rich nose - candied citrus fruits and floral notes. Intense palate but a pleasantly soft mouthfeel. Juicy and ripe wine, quite sweet. Hardly overbearing but clearly low acidity. Good stuff.
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Had to try one of these out. Grape and pineapple nose, very light and slightly sweet. Big sweetness with bracing lemonade acidity with strawberry and herbal notes. Very straight up and agressive in its sweetness with slight finesse. Delicious, but not demanding.
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$55 retail (375ml). Wow. This ultra-pure Riesling really tip toes with light lemon, minerals, pear / apple fruit, and fine acidity. Extremely well-balanced. Beautiful stuff.
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9/30/2023 - calypse Likes this wine: 92 Points
Schöne, zurückgenommene tropische Frucht. Intensive Süße, aber ebenfalls nicht plakativ, sondern sehr harmonisch eingebunden. Es fehlt ein klein wenig mehr Säure, um sich der Süße entgegenzustellen. 20 Jahre Reife in keiner Weise schmeckbar, präsentiert sich immer noch sehr lebendig!
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1/13/2023 - beatles wrote: 93 Points
AP1904.
375 ml
Golden colour. Dry and mineral, a wee bit smoky with great depth. Fine acidity and balance, and of course sweetness, but this seems to have arrived.
#ThankGodItsFriday
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9/25/2021 - SimonG wrote: 93 Points
Blind. Pale straw. Wonderful nose, and similar palate — sweet but excellent acidity that has really come to play and carries the wine through its long finish with impeccable balance. Couldn’t be anything other than a higher pradikat wine, and I immediately go to 03 Donnhoff. I’ve been consistently impressed by the 03s here, the richness beautifully integrated with acidity that might have been tame initially but that has come in to balance nicely over the past decade. Enough sweetness to cope with a lovely apple tart, but so fresh and zingy with it. One to happily sip on its own as it matures further. AP…1904. ****
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8/8/2021 - LWI wrote: flawed
Odd
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3/13/2021 - Jason Wu Likes this wine: 92 Points
Lovely gold colour, pure apple tart, stone fruits, bee wax, honey, creaminess, mineral and sea breeze. Fully developed. Perfect with apple strudel!
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6/17/2020 - btock Likes this wine: 93 Points
I'm a Donnhoff nut and I've enjoyed squirreling away a few of the Goldkapsel 'dessert' wines. Find I reach more often for Sauternes as I really want to let the Rieslings age. But (finally) had a few friends over after quarantine for a distanced patio gathering and was closing out the night with a few hard cheeses. The '03 vintage was so hot/rich thought it might be in an approachable spot. This was enjoyable. Golden but not syrupy, nice stone fruit and a touch of tropical fruit notes. Light mouthfeel. Good on its own as a sipper but also played well against the marcona almonds and apricots on the cheese plate. Not as good with the cheeses themselves. This can hold for some time give the structure.
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6/17/2020 - rocknroller wrote: 93 Points
Being Social While Distancing: Medium deep gold color. Drank a small glass from 375ml. This is lovely, deep and rich, ripe apple, pineapple, honey and fusil, slate, medium acidity, great oily texture and long. Thanks Brian!
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2/17/2019 - fclarity wrote: 93 Points
From a perfect looking bottle, This wine had a yellow center and clear rims (looking quite young). The medium intensity nose emanated pear, quince, apple, and minerals.
In the mouth, this wine was ripe and rich. At first it had low acidity but you could sense it below the mass of fruit. As the wine aired it slowly developed more backbone. After 5 hours, this wine had gorgeous balance and outstanding length.
While I might prefer this wine with more age on it, it was certainly drinking with extended aeration. It is hard to judge at this point how good it might get but I would bet on a couple extra points.
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2/22/2018 - Julian B Likes this wine: 94 Points
Sublime.
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4/14/2017 - acheng wrote: 93 Points
Great auslese. Pronounced minerality with great poise and Riesling fruit. Moderate sweetness and light on its feet.
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5/20/2016 - tinybubbles wrote: 89 Points
Difficult to judge even at thirteen years of age. Supersaturated as one might expect given the style and vintage, and yet still displaying reasonable balance. 89-90?
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7/8/2015 - Normann Likes this wine: 93 Points
lys gul, eple, kraftig fyldig frukt, frisk syre, rund, nydelig balansert. En fantastisk god vin! Har et par flasker til, blir spennende å følge.
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3/11/2015 - Sennma wrote: 89 Points
The nose was closed on this one but showing a lot on the palate. Nice and ripe and balanced, Donnhoff did well in a tough vintage.
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3/4/2015 - acyso wrote: 90 Points
Chicago ♥ Dönnhoff (Chicago, IL): #19-04, 8% abv. From half-bottle. Producer, producer, producer. The 2003s from Doennhoff don't suck. The Hermannshoehle I had a few months back and this bottle demonstrate that fact. A somewhat muted nose that wasn't giving very much. The palate definitely comes off with a bit of that rich oily texture that such a ripe wine would inevitably have. However, despite that, the balance on this is commendable. Yes, the acidity is low, but only in the context of Doennhoff wines -- there's plenty to keep everything fresh and far from cloying. This does come off as a bit monolithic now, and I've no doubt this will get a lot better with some more time.
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1/17/2014 - LWI wrote: 87 Points
Friday wines: Shy, light on the nose, a bit honey; some minerality, moderate sweetness and length. A smallish, pretty wine - no standout.
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12/22/2013 - SimonG wrote: 91 Points
Christmas & New Year 2013; 12/20/2013-1/1/2014: Curious, and slightly unfortunate cheesy nose. This is underpinned with a touch of grapefruit, and honeyed passion fruit. The sweetness is starting to come through as it begins to fill out on the palate. Long. ****
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9/14/2013 - AndrewSGHall wrote:
Meh. Kind of boring really. Pleasant to drink, but no depth or soul or zest. OTOH, rinsing the glass with 21 yr old rum and topping with a few oz of this was delightful.
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3/9/2013 - SimonG wrote: 93 Points
Dinner @ R&Y (R&Y): Blind. Half. Pale colour. Riesling nose, hints of ripeness and of grapefruit on ye nose. Not showing much complexity at the moment, or indeed much sweetness (100-120 g RS), but this has wonderful balance, no sense of 2003 blowsiness or over ripeness. Impeccable poise. This could be really special as it starts to develop complexity and to mature though its teenage years. Very promising. **(**) Turns out that this is showing consistently with my note of a couple of years ago.
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1/18/2012 - Dbrane wrote: 89 Points
Dönnhoff Tasting with Helmut Dönnhoff (Taberna Wine Bar, Singapore): Dark yellow. Nose is ripe and very alluring. Palate as expected from the vintage was ripe and intense. Some might feel that it is clunky but I like the character here. Good freshness coupled with great concentration. A little matured flavors here and could easily be mistaken for a Beerenauslese.
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1/18/2012 - ikileo wrote:
Tasting of Weingut Hermann Donhoff Wines (Taberna): Nose: Obviously from a warmer vintage. Notes of butterscotch with bold clean fruit. Intense from the get go.
Taste: honey, a touch of viscosity, bold flavours. Hints of spiced warm fruit. Drinking very nicely now. A warm vintage but still exudes balance and class.
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10/30/2011 - salil wrote: 92 Points
Remarkable for an '03; very pure, refreshing and light with ripe peach, melon and apple fruit framed by minerally and floral elements. There's a sense of real freshness and brightness to the flavours with more acidity than I'd expect in the vintage, and great balance.
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10/31/2010 - Siggy wrote: 92 Points
From half bottle, bought on closeout. Deep gold color. Whoever remarked recently that the best 2003 German Rieslings are slimming down and becoming much more interesting really nailed this wine. A whiff of petrol on the perfumed nose; nicely ripe, apple-tinged fruit; deep and long on the mineral-laced palate. It's not delicate, but not heavy or ponderous either. Classic Auslese sweetness. Perhaps a touch more mature than one would expect, but maybe this is because it was a half bottle that had been on a store shelf a while.
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9/29/2010 - SimonG wrote:
Ledbury with B&A and R&Y (The Ledbury, London): Half bottle. Pale colour. Nose a little mute initially, palate also quite simplistic; comments of sugar-water etc round the table. So, slearly in a slightly difficult phase having lost the exuberant sweetness and flesh of youth but not yet showing the interesting development and complexity that I think it will. Over about 90minutes in the glass the nose started opening up and gaining complexity, citrus fruit starting to open to something more exotic. The palate was initialy quite lean and not much sweeter than off-dry. No sign of at least 100 of the 120g RS this posseses. However, it did start to sweeten and become more expressive in the glass with air and I think it's all there. Decant for a day or two or cellar for a decade or two. One thing that's evident on this showing - superb balance and a minerality and precission that can't hurt its longer term prospects. Lovely wine but don't aste by opening one at the moment unless you're planning to follow it through a full day of development. A bit of a guess but **(**+?)
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2/25/2010 - Margauxguy wrote: 92 Points
a little sweeter than I was expecting from reading the reviews. Honeyed and rich, mouth filling and slightly viscous.
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2/16/2010 - KWC3141 wrote: 92 Points
From 375ml, very nice. Pale gold, lighter than I expected. Nice crisp pear not too tart, but very smooth and drinkable. Seems less mature than some auslese, and the body is a bit lighter than I expected. This is just smooth and very very drinkable. Worth seeking out.
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7/2/2009 - Benj wrote: 94 Points
From the nose you can't tell it's an Auslese. Pretty lime, apple and mineral nose. No botrytis evident. However, this stuff absolutely explodes on the palate with an intense, beautiful acid-sweetness balance, one of the best I've ever experienced. Really wonderful stuff. The flavour profile is the usual tropical fruits, lime and apple but it is the power, grace and balance of this wine that makes it so exceptional.
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4/25/2009 - Eric wrote: 93 Points
CellarTracker Five Year Anniversary (Seattle, WA, USA): From 375ml. Mmm, this is like green apples dipped in a bit of honey. The first impression is one of richness, but, despite the 2003 heritage, this has plenty of acidity. The more time i spend with it the more refreshing it seems. I expected this might be somewhat flaccid, but this is really quite stellar. There is very good minerality beneath the fruit, but this is basically unformed right now, just a huge block of delicious potential. Hints of honey, fruit, tart apple and some petrol. Delicious to suck down now. Probably decades from really strutting. I had 6 half bottles, so I have no regrets about baby killing one now to check in.
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9/13/2008 - WineKnurd wrote: 97 Points
Popped and poured. Beautiful, elegant nose of freshly cut open pineapple and mango with a perfume-like, floral base and hints of classic Riesling "petrol". The wine is sweet on the palate but not cloying or over the top. Much like the natural sweetness of pure, fresh pineapple juice as opposed to the juices in grocery stores that are enhanced with added sugar. Fresh pineapples, tropical fruits and a smooth, creamy mouth feel make this wine extremely easy to drink. Sauternes like mouth feel but obviously not as sweet. Crisp acidity leaves your palate watering for another delicious sip and removes any of the "back of the throat burn" experienced in some Rieslings. Perfect balance. Great complement to a fresh apple crumble desert with generous amounts of cinnamon and real vanilla ice cream. Expensive but worth the money for a special occasion. This is a fantastic bottle of wine drinking in its prime right now with no signs of slowing down soon. (CMS A+)
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1/7/2007 - psmith wrote:
Fresh and rich nose - candied citrus fruits and floral notes. Intense palate but a pleasantly soft mouthfeel. Juicy and ripe wine, quite sweet. Hardly overbearing but clearly low acidity. Good stuff.
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9/24/2005 - Pool Boy wrote: 90 Points
Dave's Dinner Hosting the DC Crü (Dave's Casa): Appley good, Somewhat 'crisp' which I didn't expect. Very nice.90
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7/2/2005 - AndrewSGHall wrote:
Had to try one of these out. Grape and pineapple nose, very light and slightly sweet. Big sweetness with bracing lemonade acidity with strawberry and herbal notes. Very straight up and agressive in its sweetness with slight finesse. Delicious, but not demanding.
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4/2/2005 - Ben Andersen wrote:
$55 retail (375ml). Wow. This ultra-pure Riesling really tip toes with light lemon, minerals, pear / apple fruit, and fine acidity. Extremely well-balanced. Beautiful stuff.
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