2006 - Norheimer Kirschheck Riesling Spatlese, Donnhoff

Donnhoff’s 2006 Norheimer Kirschheck Riesling Spatlese smells beautifully of iris, cherry, lime, and honey. Juicy melon and cherry fruit are underlain by subtle salinity on a satin-textured palate, and this finishes with terrific refreshment, refinement, and lift – wafting, lilting as though its finish were yet another long inhalation. It’s true, I’m crazy for what Donnhoff does with this site, but the reason the wine’s quality is so often underestimated by other critical observers of the wine scene is because it is inherently delicate and doesn’t demand that you pay attention. Those who fail to attend will leave more for the rest of us. Time will tell how these mature, but my guess is this will be lovely for two decades. “I was amazed when the 2006s tasted as good as I had said they might become,” says Helmut Donnhoff. “It turned out what we vintners always said about Riesling – that’s it’s ideally suited to our clime – is true. I guess I didn’t really didn’t believe that in quite complete seriousness. I ran around the cellar like a crazy man, tasting back and forth” in excitement as the quality of this latest collection became evident. Sample it starting almost anywhere, and you’ll be a believer, too. “If there is one vintage I could compare with this, it would be 1971 as I remember it, with this perfect tension between acid and sugar, this clarity, a bit of botrytis but not stinky, completely clear and mineral, structured, architectural.” In the 21 years I have been visiting him, I have never known Helmut Donnhoff to permit himself such superlatives. “We set the record, harvesting everything in two weeks,” he adds. Trying to handle so many sites needing so much selection in so short a time “was close to the limit, and we managed it only because I have really good people” picking. This year, Donnhoff added to his line-up vineyards in two of the three traditionally top sites of Bad Kreuznach, parcels whose purchase in 2003 he had kept under wraps until now. O

Pale golden yellow with green reflections. Subdued aromas of primrose, lemon oil and sage. Pure, polished apricot pit flavor with refined minerality. Delicate and quite long.