The flinty and herbal-flavored 2015 Schlossb?ckelheimer Felsenberg Riesling Sp?tlese is from grapes that were selected a few days before the ones for the Grosses Gew?chs to keep the alcohol level moderate at 13%. It is a mouth-filling, yet straight and racy/piquant wine with lush fruit, piquant acidity (ten grams of total acidity!), great elegance and terroir expression. Its finish is stimulatingly salty, and the complexity of the Felsenberg terroir shines through dramatically and untamed. I would keep this wine for 5-10 years because there are other D?nnhoff Rieslings that are able to charm you in the meantime. This one has other talents. D?nnhoff remembers the 1998 as a similar Sp?tlese. If you so will, this is the antipode of the aristocratic Hermannsh?hle.

Coming from his Felsenturmchen acreage (noted on the price list and alluded to on the wine's label by a sketch of the stone tower in question) Donnhoff's 2009 Schlossbockelheimer Felsenberg Riesling Spatlese smells strikingly and multifariously of elder flower, cassis, lime, and a cooling array of green herbs. Silken in texture, palpably dense, yet delicate, this delivers a kaleidoscopic, refreshing, and practically ethereal interaction of floral perfume, luscious citrus, herbal essences, and saline, stony and smoky mineral nuances. What it lacks in sheer seductiveness vis-a-vis its Kirschheck counterpart, it makes up for in intricacy and energy. This should dazzle for 20-25 years. "In a great vintage with good weather this prolonged," remarks Helmut Donnhoff of 2009, only half in humor, "the only time limit to harvest is that set by the wild boar." And most of the excitement here this year - including the remarkable range of Spatlesen and the botrytis selections - was generated from a single week's picking in early November. "It's a year of the naked wine," adds Donnhoff, pointing to what he perceives as the stark portrayal of vineyard typicity that runs through his entire 2009 collection. His recent arrangement with the new Gut Hermannsberg (whose origins and inaugural vintage are canvassed elsewhere in this report) has taken Schlossbockelheimer Kupfergrube out of Helmut Donnhoff's line-up, while he has roughly doubled the surface area in the Hermannshohle under his control (to nearly 10 acres, or roughly half the Einzellage). The suggested retail prices I received from Donnhoff's importer represented significant price reductions vis-a-vis the last two years - and prices on the estate's private customer list have remained virtually unchanged for several years - adding yet another reason to seek them out. "I want to offer my customers good value," remarks Donnhoff with, in my view, considerable understatement, "and I'm proud of the fact that nobody in the trade who has bought from me has lost money reselling my wine." Terry Theise Estate Selections, imported by Michael Skurnik Wines, Inc., Syosset, NY; tel. (516) 677-9300

The 2006 Schlossbockelheimer Felsenberg Riesling Spatlese delivers luscious, juicy ripe poached peach and red raspberries dusted with brown spices and pepper. Intense and faintly sweet-tart in character at this youthful stage, it lacks the clarity or levity of the Kirschheck, but certainly not the sheer length, which is saltier, smokier, sappier, spicier, and altogether more insistent. Not that this needs to try too hard to convince me either to take the next sip, or to revisit another bottle in a few years. It should have a good 15 years in it. From a quartzitic site along the Nahe at the edge of the city (and which might have been built-on had the municipal water supply not been located there, the reason also why it must be farmed organically), “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. On the one hand he felt that acquiring parcels another step downstream and in his “home city” and which – like those in Norheim – had once been proudly maintained by “wine nobility” but more recently neglected, followed a theme and closed a circle. “I see myself in the line of cellar-masters who were my mentors. If I didn’t do it,” he says, “there was nobody else left.” On the other hand, he had in mind that vineyards “not quite so close to my heart,” but still top quality (“because a lousy vineyard and a good vineyard take the same amount of work”) could be employed to increase volumes of his generic Riesling. As soon as he tasted the first young wines, he knew they were not destined for blending away! In virtually any other vintage, his top 2006 Auslesen would have been Beerenauslesen, Donnhoff points out, and I have to admit I wondered whether the wines that followed – even if considered virtual Trockenbeerenauslesen – could represent an ascent. “One sees the botrytis during the harvest and one senses the possibilities. But one also knows what can happen if bad weather comes. And all of the vineyards were ripening at the same time. Sweet, dry, botrytized, all were possible at the same time. In principle, I would have had to harvest everything on the same day, which is impossible, crazy. Of course, you could have pushed things to the limit and harvested T.B.A. – I know I can make one at the highest level – but my story, my love is here,” says Donnhoff, stretching his hands over the bottles of Spatlese and Auslese lined up on the table.” That represents my dream, and anything that jeopardizes it must be set aside. I’ll always forgo the extra 10% of opulence.” Hence, although at one point a start was made on berries for T.B.A., in the end, only two truly botrytis-dominated wines, both Beerenauslesen, were picked. Importer: Terry Theise Estate Selections, imported by Michael Skurnik Wines, Inc., Syosset, NY; tel (516) 677-9300