Dönnhoff Riesling Trocken Kreuznacher Kahlenberg 2021

The year 2021 marked the return to a classic vintage, something that Cornelius Dönnhoff had not experienced this century. For his father Helmut, however, a late harvest in October and November was common. The harvest at Dönnhoff took place about two to three weeks later than in recent years, due to the absence of heat waves and the frequent occurrence of rain, although without storms. The main challenge of the vintage was downy mildew, requiring careful management of the vines to keep the foliage healthy and aerated. Without this care and without 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, with increasingly cold nights. The musts had low sugar concentrations, but the grapes were ripe despite their extremely high acidity. The experienced Dönnhoff team knew how to harvest at the right time in each vineyard. Since there was virtually no occurrence of botrytis in the central Nahe region, it was not possible to produce Beerenauslesen and Trockenbeerenauslesen, only Eiswein.

The musts, cooled by the cold nights, were processed without haste.

The surprise of the 2021 vintage was that the wines were able to balance the high acidity (10 g/L) without needing residual sugar, something that no one expected at the beginning of the harvest, not even at Dönnhoff. Since part of the acidity precipitated in the form of tartrate, the wines became more mature and balanced on the palate than expected in the fall. To balance the acidity naturally (with potassium and calcium), the musts remained in contact with the grape skins for longer than usual, allowing the tartaric acid to combine with other elements and partially precipitate, as long as the wine had enough time for this process.

The vintage results were exceptional, especially for Dönnhoff, with the Grosses Gewächs (GG) and Auslese wines standing out. The Dellchen GG peaked at the end of July, but was still impressive four weeks later in Wiesbaden.