The Nahe Conquers 2024, Plus Austria’s Black Grape Oasis

Senior Editor Stuart Pigott knew when he traveled to the Nahe Valley that the quantities of many 2024 vintage wines would be way down on recent vintages because of the spring frost of late April 2024. It turned out that the damage was far more heterogeneous than Stuart had expected.

An extreme case was Gut Hermannsberg, the former Nahe State Domaine, where the yields from this producer’s seven GG sites were so low that the radical decision was taken to put everything produced there into the Gut Hermannsberg Riesling Nahe 7 Terroirs Trocken 2024 rather than do a series of small, separate bottlings. The result has stunning complexity for what on paper is an entry-level wine, with huge minerality plus flavors of stone fruits and citrus, sage, tarragon and rosemary. It's also a bargain!

Gut Hermannsberg releases its top dry wines as GG Reserves five years after the vintage, and Stuart is convinced that the Gut Hermannsberg Riesling Nahe Kupfergrube GG Reserve 2020 is the best of these late releases so far. In contrast to a large number of 2020s that now taste a tad dull, this has dangerous freshness and enormous smoky and spicy flavors on a super-concentrated, sleek palate.

The renowned Donnhoff winery, which neighbors Gut Hermannsberg, also suffered severe losses at some sites and therefore produced no riesling GGs from the Felsenberg vineyard in 2024. The tiny production there all went into the Schlossbockelheim village wine. To compensate for these losses, the winery purchased riesling grapes from the Wittmann winery in the Rheinhessen and the Dr. Burklin-Wolf winery in the Pfalz. These one-off dry village wines from Donnhoff could well become collector’s items. Scroll down for the notes.

The stars from Donnhoff 2024 offerings, however, are both rieslings from the Hermannshohle site. The Dönnhoff Riesling Nahe Niederhäuser Hermannshöhle Spätlese 2024 is a great masterpiece in this underrated off-dry style. It marries spring-like lightness with awesome density so that they’re inseparable right through the extraordinary long finish.

The dry Dönnhoff Riesling Nahe Hermannshöhle GG 2024 is a masterpiece of power and delicacy, with wonderful delicate peach and peach blossom aromas. Like many other Nahe wines of the 2024 vintage, this is one for those riesling freaks who love sleek wines with racy acidity.

Emrich-Schönleber was luckier than many other wineries in the Nahe, harvesting almost two-thirds of a normal vintage in spite of the frost damage. Their Emrich-Schönleber Riesling Nahe Auf der Ley GG (Auction Wine) 2024 may well be the wine of the vintage in this region. It has a silky gracefulness that’s really rare, then an incredibly intense wet-stone minerality kicks in at the finish.

Hot on its heels is the enormously deep and structured Emrich-Schönleber Riesling Nahe Halenberg GG 2024. Less amazing but still remarkable is the super-elegant Emrich-Schönleber Grauburgunder Nahe S Trocken 2024, which Stuart considers a candidate for the best-ever wine from this grape in the region thanks to its wonderful interplay of creamy concentration and energetic freshness.

Stuart also tasted a truly astounding dry riesling from Oregon that could hold its own in this exalted company, the Brooks Riesling Willamette Valley Cahiers 2023, which dazzles with its floral beauty and mineral mystery. The racy finish of this unique wine just doesn’t want to stop.

Two pinot noirs from the same producer also stood out. Stuart couldn’t decide if the deeply rooty and incredibly subtle Brooks Pinot Noir Willamette Valley Eola-Amity Hills Cahiers 2023 or the more structured and compact Brooks Pinot Noir Willamette Valley Eola-Amity Hills Rastaban 2023 impressed him more. The latter is from the Brooks vineyard, which was planted in 1973, making these some of the oldest vines in Oregon.

Staff Writer & Taster Courtney Humiston uncovered a few more gems from Oregon in her tastings – two X Novo chardonnays from the maiden 2021 vintage and 2022. The chards both come from X Novo’s estate vineyard, X Omni, which was planted between 2014 and 2016 by founder Craig Williams, who famously guided all winemaking activities at the Joseph Phelps winery in Napa Valley for 32 years. He had originally not planned to make his own wine from the site but changed his mind after seeing the quality of the wines coming from neighboring producers, such as Soter, Morgen Long  and Walter Scott.

Located at the very southern end of the Willamette Valley, the X Omni vineyard is planted in true massal selection with 22 different clones, a mix of Dijon and heritage. The wines offer high natural acidity and phenolic content, which Williams boldly extracts by crushing the grapes through a set of rollers prior to pressing, "making the flavor in the skins more available," he said. The wines are pure and complex, transmitting nervy minerality from the basalt soils and a compelling mix of aromas with layered texture and incredible length.

READ MORE A ‘MIRACULOUS’ VINTAGE RAISES THE BAR IN THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST: OREGON 2025 TASTING REPORT

Austria's Black Grape Oasis

We’ve started our tastings of Austrian wines in our Hong Kong office, ahead of Stuart’s and Staff Writer & Critic Claire Nesbitt’s trip to the country next month, with the spotlight falling on red wines from Burgenland. In contrast to the white grape-dominant wine-growing areas in Niederosterreich further north, the warmer Panonian climate in Burgenland permits black grapes to ripen easily. And all four of the highest-rated reds that Claire tasted are from Burgenland-based producers Gesellmann, Günter + Regina Triebaumer, Heinrich and Zehetbauer.

Two of the top Austrian reds in our report are produced from blaufrankisch, a local variety that we think makes some of the best reds in the country. The Günter + Regina Triebaumer Blaufränkisch Burgenland Ried Plachen 2022 is concentrated, plush and extravagantly spicy, showing an array of incense, cinnamon and spiced-cherry aromas, while another great example, the Gesellmann Cuvée G 2021, is produced mostly from blaufrankisch with a small portion of St. Laurent. It’s a polished, composed and full-bodied red, showing fantastic length and intensity of dried flower, spice, herb and berry aromas. From an outstanding vintage, it’s among the best that they have produced.

But Claire was equally impressed with two wines made from international grape varieties planted in Burgenland from the excellent 2019 vintage. The vineyards of producer Heinrich are planted mostly to blaufrankisch, but they also produce an excellent Bordeaux-style red. The Heinrich Burgenland Elegy 2019, a blend of cabernet sauvignon and merlot, is classy, oak-influenced and well-structured. Likewise deep and focused is the spicy Zehetbauer Cabernet Franc Omega 2019. While both wines have been aged for longer before release, they have the structure and intensity for further aging.

Check out the tasting notes below for fragrant and elegant pinot noirs from producers like Karl Schnabel and Loimer, as well as wines produced from the local varieties zweigelt and St. Laurent. For the rest of what Austria has to offer, stay tuned for the annual report in a few weeks’ time.

– Stuart Pigott, Courtney Humiston and Claire Nesbitt contributed reporting.

The list of wines below is comprised of bottles tasted and rated during the past week by the JamesSuckling.com tasting team. They include many latest releases not yet available on the market, but which will be available soon. Some will be included in upcoming tasting reports.

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