Picked a few days before the GG, the 2021 Niederh?user Hermannsh?hle Riesling Auslese is based on highly ripe Riesling berries and opens with a clear, lemony, pure, fresh and finely concentrated bouquet with grapefruit, lime and slate aromas. Basket pressed, this is a lush and generous, pure, saline and piquant Auslese with a long, intense and highly stimulating finish with very fine bitters. The Hermannsh?hle was picked with the highest must weight and acidity level and represents the most complex and generous yet also precise Auslese of the vintage. 8% stated alcohol. Natural cork. Tasted at the domaine in July 2022.

The 2020 Niederh?user Hermannsh?hle Riesling Auslese is another beauty of the domain that has probably bottled one of the finest vintages in history with the 2020s. The nose is pure, fresh and concentrated, with ripe fruit and very fine raisin and citric aromas that are intertwined with sugared grapefruit and crushed slate notes. Mouth-filling, round and delicate on the palate, this is a rich and concentrated yet filigreed and seemingly fragile Auslese that reveals a firm and sustainable mineral structure on the finish that stays on the palate for minutes. Another fantastic, persistently crystalline and salty Auslese from the Hermannsh?hle. 8% alcohol. Tasted at the domain in July 2021.

Donnhoff's 2007 Niederhauser Hermannshohle Riesling Auslese leads with an unusually floral aromatic display, and the palate impression is so honeyed you-d think it were Bienenauslese (selected by bees). There is remarkable density here, with site-typical layering of flowers, orchard fruits, citrus, berries, along with smoky, peat-like, stony mineral suggestions that become more prominent as the wine takes on air. The finish is almost luxuriantly rich by Hermannshohle standards. But I am sure this wine will find more to say with time and not fall silent for 30 years or more. 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