Helmut Donnhoff's children gave him and his wife Gabi a mid-December trip to Paris for his 60th birthday, thus setting up a potential conflict with what was to become his 2009 Oberhauser Brucke Riesling Eiswein A.P. #35. "December was getting close," he explains, "and - damn it! - there were still grapes hanging in the Brucke. The day we were to leave, it got really cold and snowy, so much so that the flight to Paris was canceled. I pretended to be sad, but I wasn't. All I could think was 'tomorrow morning, we attack!' And so, we harvested Eiswein, and I was happy." With 250 liters like this, no wonder! Imagine raspberry and white peach syrup laced with fresh grapefruit, nut oils, salt, and vanilla cream. Hints of marzipan and white raisin point toward an ennobled note entirely harmoniously integrated into the classic confectionary elements of the Eiswein genre. The uncanny stream of primary juiciness would be unthinkable so deep into T.B.A. must weight were it not for the effect of deep frost. Creaminess and penetrating brightness; spherical self-sufficiency and electrical vibrancy; implosive extract and feather-like levity have seldom if ever been more strikingly combined. Over the next decade or two, this may even become more amazing. "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

"We couldn't harvest all of the frozen grapes in a day,-" explains Donnhoff in a continuation of his Eiswein narrative and an account of his 2009 Oberhauser Brucke Riesling Eiswein A.P. #36. "But I was ok with that - it didn't matter to me now. In the afternoon came the news -you can fly out tonight- (to Paris for a vacation). The next morning, it was even colder. Now it was my son's chance, and so there is an Eiswein Helmut and an Eiswein Cornelius," namely this A.P. #36. One whiff makes the hairs in my nostrils stand on end. The wine's prickly pungency is further reflected on the palate, yet along side is a suggestion of creaminess as well as salted caramel and honey from the subtle botrytis concentration that was present before these grapes froze. More viscous and superficially sweet than the A.P. #35, this simultaneously projects intense acidity, even if - as Donnhoff suggests - some acid fell out after the first day's freeze. Perhaps that effect - or the wine's embryonic state - accounts for the absence of the vibratory intensity that rivets attention on A.P. #35. We have here the same 7.5% alcohol though from more than 20 additional degrees Oechsle because, explains Donnhoff, the yeasts simply couldn't manage any further conversion. For unifying botrytis with frost concentration, and for sheer palate persistence, the elixir in question here is nothing short of phenomenal. "In 20 years," contends Donnhoff with a wry smile and a nod toward this Eiswein, "Cornelius may be able to beat me." "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

It was no Eiswein year, says Donnhoff by way of introducing his 2007 Oberhaueser Brucke Riesling Eiswein. Okay, we had a really good year, I told myself, and I don't have to do this. Having grapes still hanging out there is an annoyance. But he let some hang anyway, and just as his agreement with his wife Gabi was about to expire - by Christmas it has to be over, I promise! - a hard frost descended. Black tea, and intensely tart grapefruit and grapefruit rind, pineapple, and red currant inform the penetrating nose and almost jumpy, dynamic palate of this dramatically distinctive Eiswein. Apricot paste and honey lend an Eszencia-like aura. Each time I tasted this, I had a sense that its wiring wasn't quite right yet, but the charge was enough to electrocute and the brightness was almost a glare. Time will tell what it becomes.While Donnhoff returned to his usual humility in characterizing the latest vintage - following an atypically unabashed outbreak of enthusiasm in describing his indeed amazing collection of 2006s - it is clear that the 2007s delight him in a similar way, as outstanding representations of their respective sites at Spatlese ripeness. (Note, incidentally, that the Pradikat has been removed from any dry wines here, in keeping with a new convention of the Nahe branch of the VDP growers- association.) -Within that range of ripeness,- he submits, -one best-recognizes the site. Here you have nothing exaggerated, but instead a normal harvest, meaning a documentation of the vineyards, each a different face on the landscape. They all went to the same school and had the same opportunities- he adds, gesturing to the long row of Spatlesen on the tasting table, and alluding to his own role as well as the vintage-s. -It was a bit intimidating this year at harvest,- he added, -because when the grapes are perfect, you can only make mistakes.- I had the rare fortune to taste this collection twice, and like so many 2007s (a comment that even more growers made about their 2008s) the wines were much more impressive in September than in Spring. A 2007 Hermannshohle Trockenbeerenauslese, by the way, is still trying to become wine after two years.Terry Theise Estate Selections, imported by Michael Skurnik Wines, Inc., Syosset, NY; tel. (516) 677-9300