WTN: Höhle in my shoe

[David M. Bueker]

• 2018 Dönnhoff Niederhäuser Hermannshöhle Riesling Spätlese - Germany, Nahe (4/21/2024)
  Shared with friends, the least enthusiastic response was “oh wow!” This really was an amazing bottle that had completely integrated despite its youth. Still showing all the original fruit, but slimmed down just enough to show the facets rather than just the rough form. I never even got around to dissecting it for a fruit salad description, as it was just enthralling to bask in its charms. I suspect this could age effortlessly for decades, but I might drink up my other bottles in an effort to capture the magic again.

“I climbed on the back of a giant albatross
Which flew through a crack in the cloud
To a place where happiness reigned all year round
Where music played ever so loudly”

• 2018 Dönnhoff Niederhäuser Hermannshöhle Riesling Spätlese - Germany, Nahe (4/21/2024)...completely integrated despite its youth. Still showing all the original fruit, but slimmed down just enough to show the facets rather than just the rough form..

Sounds good. I don't drink much Dönnhoff, but had the 2018 Hermannshöhle GG last month with Nathan, who is a big fan. I hadn't tracked it over its lifetime, but it certainly had more integration to go, and did not feel very slim to me. It was clearly a good wine, and I enjoyed it, but it was still marked a bit too much by the soft vintage for my tastes.

Of course palates/preferences vary, but sounds like the Spätlese may have been a restrained wine (in its idiom) that year.

[David M. Bueker]

I was actually quite surprised at how un-2018 this was. Gives me hope.

Nice report. I mostly avoided 2018, I think all I have is a mixed case of pradikat wine (Willi S and Selbach?) I should visit (and hope shows as well).