More about Jonas Dostert

Very few growers capture the spirit of the German new wave like Jonas Dostert. He produces tiny quantities of electric, profoundly mineral wines from an obscure limestone-rich corner of the Obermosel right on the border with Luxembourg. Through dedicated farming and dialed-in cellar work, Dostert reveals seriously delicious, terroir-transparent wines that redefine the potential of this overlooked region. The wines read like lyrical love letters to his unique home terroir.

Jonas is the third generation of his family to farm these 2.7 hectares of mature Chardonnay, Elbling, Pinot Noir, and Pinot Gris vines around his home village of Nittel. This area is certainly off the beaten path for "classic" German wine but it's a stone's throw from Trier and the famous terroirs of the Saar (a quick 25-minute drive from Nittel to the cellar door of Egon Müller). However, the terroir could not be more different. Instead of slate slopes, the Obermosel is loaded with Kimmeridgian limestone. Nittel has a touch more clay mixed in with limestone marl as well as dolomite—a super hard, magnesium-rich limestone that helps to give the wines their signature lift and cut.

Before returning to his family estate, Jonas spent time working in the aging cellar of Burgundy icon Domaine Leflaive. He resists any facile comparison, winkingly explaining to our friends at Vom Boden: “Go to Burgundy, work with Leflaive for a few months and voilà you can make Leflaive!” Jonas’ wines don’t taste like Leflaive or, for that matter, Burgundy, but he does source barrels from the iconic Puligny estate and his careful use of reduction is extremely poised and confident.