Dolde Riesling Neuffener 2018

Helmut Dolde's Neuffener Riesling comes from the village of Neuffen in Württemberg, southern Germany, in the foothills of the Schwäbische Alb (Swabian Alps). The vines grow in Weißer Jura soils — calcareous Jurassic marl formed by ancient marine deposits, the same formation known in Burgundy as marne blanche — at elevations up to 528 meters above sea level in the Schloßsteige single vineyard, one of the highest vineyard sites in Germany.

Dolde describes 2018 as the best vintage he had ever produced at the time of bottling: a warm year with enough rain, no disease pressure, and a long growing season that delivered ripe fruit alongside retained freshness and slightly more body than typical. Fermentation uses indigenous yeasts in 90% stainless steel and 10% used barrels, with six months of lees aging in tank before bottling.

The Neuffener Riesling is fully dry. The Weißer Jura soils give the wine a chalk-driven freshness and saline lift that distinguishes it clearly from Rieslings grown on the Brauner Jura (brown marl) plots Dolde farms around Linsenhofen and Metzingen. The result sits closer in character to a fine Chablis or an Alsatian Riesling than to the Mosel: lean, mineral, and citrus-driven, with stone fruit aromatics and genuine length.

Dolde holds no organic or biodynamic certification by choice. He avoids copper sulfates — permitted under organic rules — and instead works with biodegradable soil treatments that he judges to do less harm. His 2.5 hectares in Württemberg are among the most unconventionally and thoughtfully farmed in the region.