Egon Müller’s Scharzhofberger Auslese from 2017 is produced from hand-selected late-harvested Riesling bunches on the legendary Scharzhofberg vineyard in the Saar, one of Mosel-Saar-Ruwer’s most celebrated and historically consistent white wine sites. The 2017 growing season in the Saar produced wines of good natural ripeness and balance that the wine-searcher aggregate of 95/100 across all approved publications confirms as a well-regarded but not exceptional vintage for the estate’s sweet wine programme, sitting comfortably above the more difficult 2018 (93/100 aggregate) and below the exceptional 2019 (99/100) and 2022 (98/100) that represent the estate’s recent peaks. The Scharzhofberg’s ancient Devonian blue slate soils, the Saar valley’s natural temperature moderation and the valley’s exceptionally long ripening season provide the combination of ripe fruit concentration, mineral precision and natural acidity that sustains the finest Riesling sweet wines from this site over many decades in the cellar.

The Auslese category at Egon Müller represents wines produced from specifically selected bunches of botrytis-affected and late-harvested Riesling in years where the vineyard’s natural conditions allow their production. The 2017’s combination of good natural sugar levels and the Scharzhofberg’s inherent mineral freshness should produce a wine of classic Saar Auslese character: the distinctive interplay of tropical and citrus fruit, petroleum, slate mineral and natural sweetness balanced by the acidity that no other Riesling region achieves at this level, in a format capable of extraordinary development over twenty to forty years in the cellar.

Egon Müller Scharzhofberger Auslese, in any vintage, is among the most ageable and intellectually rewarding sweet wines produced anywhere in the world, and the 2017’s solid quality provides collectors who cannot access the exceptional 2019 or 2022 with a reliable and genuine expression of the Scharzhofberg’s extraordinary sweet wine potential from a producer whose name is inseparable from the pinnacle of German Riesling quality.

Pale gold with fine complexity and a concentrated nose of ripe peach, apricot, honey, lemon zest, white flowers and the distinctive Scharzhofberg slate mineral. Medium-bodied with superb natural acidity providing perfect balance to the natural sweetness, a long, honey-inflected, mineral finish of considerable elegance. Best now through 2045.