Thursday, July 17, 2008

Dönnhoff's Bridge

A lady walks into a shoe shop..and asks for shoes in 2 sizes smaller than would fit her foot. After trying to convince the lady she has a larger size..the sales assistant finally decided to erase the correct size of a shoe that would fit..and entered the size the customer wanted. Everyone was happy...
The story is a good example of the different Riesling wines on offer. After trying many Riesling wines from the very good vintage of 2007..be they the simple version, a Kabinett trocken, Spätlese trocken..and the rest...it really boils down to what the individual wants. My guess is..that many drinkers say they like 'dry' wines..but in fact prefer a 'medium dry'...
Well..you can get that if you know the vineyard/grower's style. All the wines I have tasted have been of good to very good quality....but each was a 'surprise'..Some expected dry wines were veering towards sweetish..and visa versa....it seems some growers are changing the 'shoe size'..to please a certain type of customer..again though.....everybody is happy!.
Dönnhoff Oberhäuser Brücke Riesling Spätlese 2007
Nahe, Germany
A vineyard dominated by grey slate....9% alcohol..amazing really..with all the flavour..
Complex aromas....fruit and flowery noted...minerals integrated into creamy texture..certainly a very fine wine...only thing that stopped me going over the top..the slightly cloying Restsüße on the lips....
no doubt it will lose it with time...a wine to share at the moment...

Points 16.5 ++

1 comment:

David McDuff said...

You're right on about the "say dry, drink off-dry" comment, Barry. I poured three of Schönleber's wines for someone last week. The Riesling trocken, Mineral and Lenz. The person prefaced his appearance at the tasting table with "I only like DRY Riesling." Yet he walked away with a bottle of Lenz which, though hardly sweet, was the only slightly off-dry wine of the bunch.

Meanwhile, as usual, I had someone at an event last night try to tell me that Keller's 2007 QbA Riesling trocken is sweet....