2015 Oberhauser Brucke Grosses Gewachs
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Helmut Dönnhoff spent many years honing his wine portfolio in an attempt to let a given site optimize what he calls its “talent,” which he decided was usually more strongly oriented in one direction or the other: either toward dry wine or toward residual sweetness. (Hermannshöhle, he decided, had too much talent in both directions not to produce from it both Grosses Gewächs and residually sweet Spätlese.) Now, Helmut and Cornelius Dönnhoff have decided that “at least in some vintages” Brücke’s trocken talent should not be overlooked – which I would say was already clear from the Brücke Spätlese trocken bottlings that this estate turned out routinely in the 1980s and 1990s! (Though, admittedly, Dönnhoff farmed only half as many Einzellagen back then, so many of today’s sites weren’t available for trocken bottlings.) Perhaps signaling an acknowledgement of my point, the label from that era has been reproduced for this first-ever Brücke Grosses Gewächs. The bad news is that it represents a mere 900 750s and a contingent of magnums, all offered solely at auction, so one of them will set you back twice as much as would the corresponding Hermannshöhle or Dellchen. Site-typical fresh red raspberry and zesty grapefruit mingle with spruce resin and cooling green herbal essences in a strikingly intense nose, anticipating the concentrated fruit and herbal mélange on a silken palate. The finish clings with sappy, resinous and glowing fruit pip piquancy allied to animating berry seed crunch.
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James Suckling
Michael Schmidt
Altre recensioni e punteggi
The auctioned 2015 Oberhäuser Brücke Riesling GG (AP #30 16) has been made for the first time since 1998. The wine has a very clear, pure and stony bouquet with some nutty or almond flavors and reveals great finesse and freshness, but is more closed and masculine than the other crus. Full-bodied, intense and elegant on the palate, this is a powerful, vital, tightly woven and racy Riesling with grip, tension and more body and tannins. This is a more rural type of Riesling for a Riesling-lover who prefers richer, more full-bodied and powerful wines--other Dönnhoff wines are more on the bright, finessed and dancing style. It was picked very late--the latest of all the dry crus. It was picked a few days after the Spätlese and Auslese, since there was almost no botrytis or frost to produce a noble sweet wine or even an Eiswein. Total production: roughly 1000 liters.
Dönnhoff first dry Riesling from their monopole Brücke (bridge) site in many years with a much more limited production than the other GGs. Tart blackcurrant and grapefruit notes dominate the nose suggesting that this is going to be quite a cool and tart wine, and indeed it is. Enormous drive and depth on the palate lead into a whiplash finish.
The question why the Dönnhoffs' Grosses Gewächs from the Brücke is not as good as the Hermannshöhle will only cross the mind of avid students of point scores. It almost has it all: ripe, local fruit; cool, salty minerality; vibrant acidity; eau de vie purity; perfect sweet and sour balance; and yet, not quite the electric charge of the Hermannshöhle. Fasten your seat belts, I could be wrong. (MS)