Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2023 Scharzhofberger Kabinett is a fabulous expression of this coolish cru where Egon Müller holds more vineyards than anybody else and certainly in the very best spots. The regular Kabinett is dense, refined and elegant on the slate-driven and still aloof nose. Savory and fresh on the first palate, with racy acidity, this is a tight and still young Riesling with ripe and concentrated fruit. Due to the coolish August last year, the Kabinett has a pronounced acidity and comes like "a fist without the velvet glove," as Egon Müller describes it. The residual sugar is more palatable than in the Wiltinger Braune Kupp Kabinett at this stage, but this Scharzhofberger is developing slowly and should be cellared fr another 6+ years at least.
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James Suckling
A masterpiece of sleek and silver elegance, this magnificent riesling Kabinett is totally pristine on the light-bodied and super-focused palate. As it aerates in the glass, a wide spectrum of stone fruit and spring blossom aromas unfurls. Then comes the racy beauty of the extremely long, precise finish, about which I could write an entire note.
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Vinous
The 2023 Riesling Scharzhofberger Kabinett comes from a completely south-facing gray slate site, always cooled by the west wind. Tender lemon spells tartness on the nose, opening into tart Reine Claude while remaining on that citrus track. The palate offers finesse and lemony brightness, a vivid spray of ripe Amalfi lemon with delicate sweetness reminiscent of lemon confit and sorbet. Beautifully taut and wonderfully light.
Riesling possesses a remarkable ability to reflect the character of wherever it is grown while still maintaining its identity. A regal variety of incredible purity and precision, this versatile grape can be just as enjoyable dry or sweet, young or old, still or sparkling and can age longer than nearly any other white variety. Somm Secret—Given how difficult it is to discern the level of sweetness in a Riesling from the label, here are some clues to find the dry ones. First, look for the world “trocken.” (“Halbtrocken” or “feinherb” mean off-dry.) Also a higher abv usually indicates a drier Riesling.
Following the Mosel River as it slithers and weaves dramatically through the Eifel Mountains in Germany’s far west, the Mosel wine region is considered by many as the source of the world’s finest and longest-lived Rieslings.
Mosel’s unique and unsurpassed combination of geography, geology and climate all combine together to make this true. Many of the Mosel’s best vineyard sites are on the steep south or southwest facing slopes, where vines receive up to ten times more sunlight, a very desirable condition in this cold climate region. Given how many twists and turns the Mosel River makes, it is not had to find a vineyard with this exposure. In fact, the Mosel’s breathtakingly steep slopes of rocky, slate-based soils straddle the riverbanks along its entire length. These rocky slate soils, as well as the river, retain and reflect heat back to the vineyards, a phenomenon that aids in the complete ripening of its grapes.
Riesling is by far the most important and prestigious grape of the Mosel, grown on approximately 60% of the region’s vineyard land—typically on the desirable sites that provide the best combination of sunlight, soil type and altitude. The best Mosel Rieslings—dry or sweet—express marked acidity, low alcohol, great purity and intensity with aromas and flavors of wet slate, citrus and stone fruit. With age, the wine’s color will become more golden and pleasing aromas of honey, dried apricot and sometimes petrol develop.
Other varieties planted in the Mosel include Müller-Thurgau, Spätburgunder (Pinot Noir) and Weissburgunder (Pinot Blanc), all performing quite well here.