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Review by: David Schildknecht

Wine Advocate: Issue 179, October 2008



The 2006 Oberhauser Brucke Riesling Auslese smells of mint, black tea and raspberry distillate. The herbal, red berry, and honey concentration on the palate by no means precludes an uncanny sense of mineral presence. Salts and wet stone coat the palate even as citrus, berry, and resinous herbs penetrate with almost frightening intensity and focus. No concessions to cushions on the furniture for lolling about (or to easy early drinking) have been made. Lock this tightly-wound and -stitched super-essence of Brucke away for at least 15 years before revisiting and count on more than four decades of fascinating evolution. My guess is that this – even more than Donnhoff’s other 2006 Auslesen – will always taste like a wine from some other vintage, at least when measured against its great Middle Mosel counterparts.



“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.