2022 Riesling Scharzhof

Lars Lagerlof, vineyard manager at Egon Müller, recalls, “The summer of 2023 appeared so dry that we reduced yields to two bunches per shoot to heed against the drought and ensure ripening. Then in August and September, a lot of rain came, when it was too late to go out and spray,” which spelled disease pressure. Harvest started on September 21 and finished on October 9. “It was brief, but we had an ideal window when the sun turned up,” Lagerlod remembers, noting that some good botrytis appeared so that small quantities of higher Prädikate could be selected. Musts started fermenting very easily, right after sedimentation. The wines are simply disarming—even seductive—in their juiciness.

Harvest in 2020 began here only on September 20 – one week before the arrival of rain – but that represents an early commencement date for this estate. The fruit during that first week was deemed ideal for Kabinett, as indeed the finished results testify. The rain made for a stop-and-go subsequent harvest, and also triggered botrytis, but none of it dried sufficiently until mid-November for Müller to finally feel confident in selecting for an Auslese, which was designated “Goldkapsel” and sold at auction. “Certainly, it was a warm vintage when one considers summer temperatures,” noted Müller’s commercial director Veronika Lintner, with whom I tasted, “but average temperatures through the whole growing season were much lower than in 2019 or in 2018, and one can certainly sense that in animation and a cooling cast to the wines.” That very much applies to the Spätlesen even though these also exhibit very ripe fruit flavors and subtle botrytis influence. Thanks to an absence of spring frost, a good set, little of the sunburn that had been experienced in 2019, and scant botrytis, 2020 recorded a relatively large crop by estate standards.

The May 2019 frost reached into even upper sections of the Scharzhofberg, and summer sunburn took a further bite out of yield that nature had already predetermined would be small. And that was before a harvest that demanded selectivity, which at this address is notoriously scrupulous. Picking did not begin until September 30, so Auslese was already being selected even as the fruit for Kabinett was brought in. A second wave of rain and botrytis was accompanied by gradual diminution of acidity, leading to an intensely active second week of October and an October 18 completion date. A tiny amount of TBA was rendered, but no BA or Goldkapsel Auslese. Cellarmaster Heiner Bollig (about whose arrival I wrote in the introduction to my report on Egon Müller’s 2018s) essentially debuted in 2019 and was, one presumes, also behind the decision to attempt Grosse Gewächse (about which I also wrote in my last report). Veronika Lintner confirmed on the occasion of my November 2021 visit that release of a 2019 Grosses Gewächs is indeed planned – which would be the first dry wine from this estate in several decades – but that it’s been decided to give it another year or two in the bottle first. Speaking of future releases, Müller plans to continue his justly attention-getting series of auctioned Kabinett Alte Reben bottlings, but there will never again be more than one bottling meriting that designation or one fuder’s worth – and quite possibly less. For several years, the estate’s remaining share of ungrafted vines has displayed visible signs of phylloxera incursion, and after 2020, a significant share of those that informed the Alte Reben bottlings were ripped out and replaced. In addition to the aforementioned, as yet unreleased TBA and Grosses Gewächs, there are ten vintage 2019 bottlings, of which I was able to taste four, the others being the generic Scharzhof, a Braune Kupp Auslese, and pairs of “regular” Kabinett and Spätlese. (For much more about Müller’s Scharzhof and its Le Gallais sister – whose bottlings are treated by the Vinous database as a subset of Egon Müller Scharzhof – consult the introductions to my accounts of their 2014–2018 collections.)

Scharzhof’s 2018 harvest commenced September 24 and lasted exactly four weeks. Müller reported not having wanted to jump the gun, because while acid levels were hardly unusually elevated, it tasted to him in the third week of September as though the share of malic acidity was still high. That phenomenon doubtless correlates with periods of metabolic shutdown during the height of summer 2018’s drought and heat, on which Müller’s assistant Veronika Lintner had commented during my visit late that year. The 2018 starting date followed three days of rain which, noted Müller, triggered what botrytis there would end up being, much of it in the form of individually shriveled berries. “I think that in the first three days of picking, we brought in a third of the entire harvest,” remarked Müller, adding that the best botrytized material was selected by early October, since at that point neither the quantity nor the quality of botrytis appeared to be improving. He drew parallels between 2018 and 2011, though he hastened to note that the 2018s are livelier, no doubt in significant measure due to their relatively low pH.

Egon Müller characterized 2018 yields as “normal,” but from a vintage in which at some estates I encountered the largest number of bottlings I had ever experienced, his is among the smallest collections I have encountered at Scharzhof. The reason is twofold. First, as already noted, there was a relative paucity of botrytis to inform upper-Prädikat bottlings. Additionally, when it came to Spätlese level, Müller didn’t deem any specific lots worthy of smaller, separate bottlings, but was instead happy to amalgamate the potential candidates into just a single Scharzhofberger Spätlese and a single Braune Kupp Spätlese. This much having been noted, the brevity of my tasting list below is still a bit misleading. The German “grapevine” was buzzing in early 2019 with rumor of a Scharzhofberg Grosses Gewächs, notwithstanding Müller’s familiar arguments for eschewing trocken Riesling. This alleged development was connected in many observers’ minds with the departure of Stefan Fobian, cellarmaster since 2000, and his replacement by young Heiner Bollig who (in fact, quite like Fobian) lacks the academic oenological training that has long since become nearly de rigueur at German wine estates. Two fuders of Scharzhofberg Riesling (reflecting harvests at 92 and 94 Oechsle) were indeed allowed to ferment to dryness – which took some nine months – and when I met with Müller on the last day of August 2019, he was prepared to reveal that one of these would be released in some form at some point, while the other will likely be reserved for “winery internal use.” Apropos of which, there are also two fuders of 2018 Scharzhofberger Kabinett Alte Reben, which, as he did in 2015, Müller bottled separately. But one of those (the A.P. #10, which I have not tasted) is also expected to stay within the walls of the estate. (“Most of the 2015 A.P. #3,” noted Müller with a smile, “is still here. We did sell some of it, but that’s not an experience I’m anxious to repeat.”) Lastly, there were also two lots of TBA not presented to me, one of which was still fermenting at the time of my most recent visit. Müller joked that the latter might end up getting stuck in the legal limbo of “partially fermented grape juice” – or the two lots might end up being joined. (For much more about this fabled estate and its Le Gallais sister – whose bottlings are treated for purposes of the Vinous database as a subset of Egon Müller Scharzhof – consult the introductions to my accounts of their 2014s, 2015s, 2016s and 2017s.)

Müller’s losses to frost were largely in the Saarburg vineyards that are the mainstay of his basic Scharzberg Riesling – with the consequence that its production volume did not even equal that of this year’s Scharzhofberger Kabinett. “Any losses we experienced in Wiltingen,” opined Egon Müller’s assistant Veronika Lintner, “simply helped with concentration,” and this year’s wines certainly don’t lack that! Egon Müller indicated not the least displeasure with the rain that fell in September 2017, since it triggered the botrytis he looks for, so that despite this having been (after 2003) his estate’s earliest recorded harvest – commencing on September 25 – he ended up with a glorious collection of nobly sweet wines. “We had beautiful botrytis right from the beginning,” related Lintner, “and we didn’t miss a day doing selection.” By October 15, harvest was over. “It was very warm during midsummer,” noted Lintner, “but not so warm as [in 2018]. We anticipated a collection rather like 2011 – lovely, if perhaps wanting a bit for acidity. But [instead] the cooler weather as harvest approached, especially at night, locked in acids.” When pressed on the matter, she acknowledged that shutdown in the vines during midsummer might also have contributed to the higher-than-anticipated acid levels. “There was one really hot period,” she recollected, “though not as long a one as [in 2018], when there was definitely shutdown.” Lintner perceives 2017’s combination of high ripeness and high extract as having conduced to “relatively muscular, weightier wines than in 2016, when the wines were unusually slim and filigreed.”

The 2017 collection here includes a Trockenbeerenauslese that Müller elected not to auction but instead (as he has done once or twice before in the recent past) to sell directly to his importers and other agents as an opportunity and token of gratitude. This had for me the unfortunate consequence that I could not taste that wine when I visited as usual in late summer. “We also picked and vinified in anticipation of a Beerenauslese,” explained Lintner, “but there was a very tiny potential volume, and in the end we decided to split it up, part going to the eventual gold capsule Auslese and the other to the Trockenbeerenauslese.” (For much more about this fabled estate and its Le Gallais sister – whose bottlings are treated for purposes of the Vinous database as a subset of Egon Müller Scharzhof – consult the introductions to my accounts of their 2014s, 2015s and 2016s.)

“Let’s put it this way,” said Egon Müller’s assistant Veronika Lintner. “In August of 2016, we weren’t counting on anything like the wines we ended up with. When we started picking on October 11, we were amazed at how healthy the grapes were. There were only healthy grapes – absolutely no botrytis. On October 21,” continued Lintner, “we called a halt for 10 days in hope of botrytis developing.” But it didn’t, which explains why there is not even a single Müller Scharzhofberg Auslese from this vintage, although the Wiltinger Braune Kupp eventually came through on that score – and with dramatic results. “There was some concentration here and there through dehydration,” reported Müller in explaining why there is just a single 2016 Scharzhofberg Spätlese, and that not picked until early November, “but it wasn’t to the point where selective picking would have resulted in sufficiently distinctive differences. And as for botrytis, that requires some humidity, whereas October 2016 remained completely dry. Acid levels weren’t high like in 2015,” he added – but he’s pulling my leg a bit, because he’s talking about 2016 levels in excess of nine grams a liter! Grapes left hanging in the Scharzhofberg after the first week of November eventually froze hard on the 30th and again on December 5, resulting in a phenomenally concentrated if as yet embryonic Eiswein. The small number of bottlings here this year is deceptive as regards yields. Peronospora in Saarburg accounted for a dramatic reduction in the volume of Riesling Scharzhof, but losses in the Braune Kupp and Scharzhofberg were at most 20%. (For much more about this fabled estate and its Le Gallais sister – whose bottlings are treated for purposes of the Vinous database as a subset of Egon Müller Scharzhof – consult the introductions to my accounts of their 2014s and 2015s.)

Egon Müller has rendered a 2015 collection noteworthy for its combination of ripeness with brightness, dynamism and focus. He thinks 1990 offers the closest resemblance among modern vintages at this renowned estate, which would, he believes, augur well for the long-term evolution of these 2015s. This year’s three Kabinetts came in just under 10 grams of total acidity, but the other wines were all over 10, without ever becoming shrill. And “Kabinett” – notwithstanding Müller’s longstanding unhappiness with that term – has already contributed significantly to this collection’s notoriety, one of two bottlings labeled “Alte Reben” having achieved at the September 2016 VDP auction in Trier by far the record hammer price (and hence almost certainly the highest price ever paid, period) for a wine labeled “Kabinett”: €199.92. “In 2015, there was enough time and no stress, so each grower could do exactly what he or she wanted when it came to picking. If anybody didn’t manage to, that was their fault,” insisted an insightful Veronika Lintner, who has since 2014 been working in the Scharzhof vineyards as well as lending marketing assistance. Picking here lasted from the 4th to the 24th of October. “In the first week or so,” related Lintner, “we occupied ourselves exclusively with selective picking. In some instances we made as many as three passes through a vineyard. With 35 people, some of whom have been pickers here for 25 years, we can work very flexibly and precisely.” But stress-free and meticulous harvest didn’t translate into multiple Scharzhofbergers at Spätlese or (non-gold-capsule) Auslese level, because a significant share of fuder-sized fermentative lots came together beautifully to inform a lone bottling at each of those Prädikat levels. The gold-capsule Auslesen, not to mention the B.A. and T.B.A., represent small volumes when compared with their counterparts from recent vintages that featured more abundant botrytis and desiccation. And the total 2015 Scharzhof and Le Gallais production is only around 10 percent higher than that of 2014. (For much more about this fabled estate and its Le Gallais sister – whose bottlings are treated for purposes of the Vinous database as a subset of Egon Müller Scharzhof – consult the introduction to my account of their 2014s.)

Given the fame of this estate now run by the fourth consecutive Egon Müller – not to mention the notoriety of its iconic Scharzhofberg vineyard – it might be argued that neither requires any sort of introduction. But it is still possible to offer some perspective that may strike most readers as novel. Despite rendering only a single wine each year that is sourced neither from the Scharzhofberg nor the Braune Kupp, a wine labeled simply “Scharzhof Riesling,” the Müllers are landholders in four other varyingly prestigious Saar vineyards, all of which inform that one generic bottling: in order of acreage, Saarburger Rausch, Oberemmeler Rosenberg, Wiltinger Kupp and Wiltinger Braunfels. It is also worth noting – as reflected in my assessments of Müller wines over the decades – that the Scharzhof’s sibling estate of Le Gallais and its wines sourced from the steep, riverside Braune Kupp are among Germany’s most impressive, yet suffer unjust neglect no doubt due to their intimate association with the Scharzhof and Scharzhofberg. And speaking of being overshadowed, enormous credit for the continued outstanding quality here is due Egon Müller’s cellarmaster since 2000, Stefan Fobian. Wines other than the Scharzhof Riesling ferment spontaneously in traditional thousand-liter casks, and not only does this apply to those labeled “Kabinett,” but Egon Müller is also keen to emphasize that he treats that term as equivalent to the pre-1971 notion of un-chaptalized “Naturwein” and thus as referring to the mainstay of his production rather than to a specialized and especially delicate category of residually sweet Riesling, the meaning that “Kabinett” has taken on for the vast majority of his fellow Mosel winegrowers.

Among the most remarkable yet generally overlooked aspects of this venerable estate is Egon Müller’s dedication to achieving not only the best possible results from any given vintage but also results that uniquely reflect each growing season. Put that way, my claim may seem like a cliché. Or it might even seem questionable, considering that this estate owes much of its fame to selectively harvested nobly sweet wines. But when one takes a closer look at what Müller’s approach means, vintage by vintage in the glass, one realizes that few winegrowers have the willingness or the wherewithal to so rigorously apply the principles of optimizing both quality and vintage character. There can be few better examples than 2014. Sizing up that season’s potential and the forecast of rain, Müller began harvesting on October 5 and was finished a mere ten days later. “In retrospect,” says Müller, “I wish we had begun picking a day or two earlier.” It was not only one of the briefest harvests in estate history but also one of the smallest, bypassing any fruit that looked to be, let alone smelled, in the least questionable. The upshot is phenomenally extract-rich wines of an almost savage youthful concentration, brightness and penetrance achievable only by someone willing to incur enormous cost and crop loss but also to countenance vintage character (and, from year to year, concomitant vintage variation) so extreme that few growers would trust their customers to accept it. There are just nine bottlings – hardly a record low number, but probably the fewest from any great vintage for this estate. “We were lucky,” reflected Müller, “because before the October rain, almost none of our fruit harbored botrytis. After the rain, rot really broke loose. But all of the Spätlesen were harvested before that. Very roughly speaking,” he added, “the Kabinetts were picked afterward,” which in large part explains his decision this year, exceptionally, to produce only a single collective bottling each of Scharzhofberg and Braune Kupp Kabinett. What about acescence? “That was already there early on,” Müller relatesed, “but our harvesters are able to detect it and easily avoid any affected bunches.”

(I treat the Le Gallais bottlings for database purposes as a subset of Egon Müller Scharzhof wines, inserting “Le Gallais” after each relevant wine name, because this approach reflects those two entities’ common legal status; reflects Müller’s own practice of presenting Scharzhofberg and Braune Kupp wines as one group; and collects all of the notes under a common heading, which is surely how most readers would want to access them.)

Two thousand thirteen was a difficult vintage for this illustrious estate. When I arrived in August to taste the young wines, there were only five bottles on the round table in the entrance hall where Egon Müller receives his guests to show the new line-up. “That is all we made,” he told me, with that quirky smile that he always seems to wear when saying things that may come as a surprise. In fact, he made absolutely no wine from the Wiltinger Braune Kupp under his Le Gallais label this year and managed to produce only one Spätlese and one Auslese in 2013, but at a considerable price: “We had only 30% of a normal crop,” he lamented. His family has been handcrafting Rieslings from their eight hectares of Scharzhofberg for generations and has continually resisted the temptation to expand their holdings to meet demand. Given the quality and rarity of his Kabinetts, it is not surprising that the auction bottling often fetches breathtaking prices in Trier each September.

The consistent excellence of recent vintages chez Muller has been impressive, by no means applying just to the rigorously selected botrytis wines that sell for enormous prices and that made the long-term reputation of this estate. In 1997, from minuscule yields and fruit that reached unprecedented ripeness levels before botrytis kicked in, the Mullers have fashioned a spectacular collection that stands, along with those of von Schubert and Zilliken, as a summit of the vintage, indeed surely a summit of the last half century of German rieslings. There are only 28 different bottlings in 1997, a low tally by Scharzhof standards, with only three wines bottled above Auslese, all noted below. A deliciously civilized ritual at the Scharzhof is to adjourn after the new wines for a blind glass of something old from a similar vintage. What could compare with 1997 here, I wondered? In the event, we enjoyed a charming 1981. Why '81? Muller Jr. said the crop was so tiny they hadn't even asked him to come home from university to take part in the picking.