Winemaker Notes
Scharzhofberg is one of the most famous vineyard sites in Germany, likely to have originally been planted by the Romans. Situated in Wiltingen, removed from the Saar in a side valley and facing south, its slopes are quite steep, with a 30–60% grade, and high, at 180-280 meters elevation. Formed from grey Devonian slate, the soils are very deep with no bedrock. This wine is always delicate, crisp and exquisite on the palate.
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
Musk and earthen complexities of smoke and struck flint meld into sun-kissed yellow cherry and tangerine in this seductive, complex kabinett. It's ethereal and sheer yet boldly penetrating, with a piercing lemon-lime finish. Delicious already but sure to improve through 2022 and hold well beyond.
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Wine & Spirits
From Müller’s steep slope in the Scharzhof vineyard, this gossamer-textured riesling channels its cool Saar valley site in crystalline flavor. There’s no real fruit to pinpoint here; the flavor is closer to a complex mineral water, salty and savory, or the taste of clear, cold air on a fall morning. Those flavors last with bell-tone clarity, weightless and profound.
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Wine Spectator
This is marked by a prominent saffron note, which leads the way to freshly cut apple, pear and quince aromas and flavors. Slate notes, a fruity core and floral elements are all connected by powerful acidity that creates perfect harmony. The finish goes on and on. Drink now through 2025.
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.