Dönnhoff

The Dönnhoffs arrived in the Nahe some two hundred and fifty years ago and set up in Oberhausen what was then normal: a farm with livestock, vegetable gardens and some vines. They have made wine since 1750, but as one activity among several.

The change came with Helmut Dönnhoff. He took over from his father in 1966 with barely four hectares planted and a fair amount of rented farmland, and in 1971 he sold that land to devote himself to wine alone. From then on he bought parcels one by one, going from around three and a half hectares to today's twenty-eight, all on steep slopes and chosen individually among the valley's best sites.

The heart of the house is the Niederhäuser Hermannshöhle. Beside it lies the Oberhäuser Brücke, a small monopole that yields one of Germany's finest Eiswein. The estate is run today by his son Cornelius with his wife Anne.