Egon Muller : Riesling Scharzhofberger Spätlese 2019

Tasting Notes and Serving Suggestions for the Riesling Scharzhofberger Spätlese 2019 by Egon Muller

Tasting

Color

The color displays a bright golden-yellow hue, reflecting the grapes’ advanced ripeness and the wine’s concentration.

Nose

The bouquet reveals remarkable complexity, opening with intense tropical fruit aromas such as mango, papaya, and ripe pineapple. These exotic notes are joined by stone-fruit scents of white peach, apricot, and nectarine. With aeration, the nose evolves toward floral nuances of hawthorn, orange blossom, and jasmine, while a smoky, slate-driven mineral dimension adds depth and precision. Hints of sweet spices, almond cream, and dried herbs complete this highly refined aromatic profile.

Palate

The attack is marked by a creamy texture and immediate fruit generosity. Flavors of tropical fruits and yellow-fleshed fruits coat the palate with a silky mouthfeel, while a crystalline acidity brings structure and balance. The saline minerality—hallmark of this slate terroir—gradually emerges and gives the wine a remarkable tension that perfectly offsets the residual sweetness. The finish lingers elegantly, moving from honeyed and fruity notes toward a more austere, mineral expression, leaving an impression of smoky slate and persistent salinity.

Food and Wine Pairing

This Riesling Scharzhofberger Spätlese 2019 pairs beautifully with spicy Asian cuisines, notably Thai curries, Vietnamese dishes, and Indian preparations where its sweetness tempers the heat of the spices. It also matches superbly with seafood, fresh crab, oysters, and delicate fish prepared with fruity sauces. Roast poultry, lacquered duck, and glazed pork make other harmonious pairings. At the end of the meal, it elevates stone-fruit desserts, apricot tarts, and exotic fruit-based creations.

Serving and Cellaring

The Riesling Scharzhofberger Spätlese 2019 is best enjoyed between 8 and 10°C, served in white wine glasses that allow its aromas to fully express themselves. No decanting is necessary, although about ten minutes of aeration after opening can broaden the aromatic range. This wine offers exceptional aging potential and can be cellared until around 2070 under optimal cellar conditions, at a constant temperature and away from light.

A Mosel Riesling of Crystalline Precision and Exceptional Complexity

The estate

Weingut Egon Muller is Germany’s most prestigious wine estate, founded in 1797 when Jean-Jacques Koch acquired the Scharzhof property at a sale held during the French Revolution. Since then, six generations of the family have succeeded one another without interruption at the helm of the estate. Now run by Egon Muller since 1991, the estate farms around 28 hectares of vines in the Mosel-Saar-Ruwer region, including 8.3 hectares in the legendary Scharzhofberg vineyard. The only German member of the exclusive Primum Familiae Vini organization, which brings together twelve of the world’s greatest family-owned wine estates, Egon Muller embodies the absolute pinnacle of German Riesling. The estate’s philosophy is based on minimal intervention, both in the vineyard and in the cellar, allowing the pure expression of Scharzhofberg’s outstanding terroir.

The vineyard

Scharzhofberger is one of the greatest Riesling vineyards in the world, located in Wiltingen. Classified as an Ortsteil, a status comparable to Burgundy’s Grands Crus, this exceptional terroir stretches across steep south to southeast-facing slopes, with gradients reaching 60%, at elevations between 200 and 290 meters. The soils are mainly composed of highly weathered gray Devonian slate in the western part, allowing deep rooting, while the eastern section shows an increasing proportion of quartzite. This geological makeup gives the wines their hallmark smoky minerality and a thermal capacity that enables optimal ripening despite the cool climate. The vineyard benefits from a particularly cool microclimate with significant day-to-night temperature swings, extending the ripening period and preserving outstanding natural acidity. The vines—some parcels of three hectares remaining ungrafted with original 19th-century rootstock—are farmed using sustainable practices that exclude herbicides, insecticides, and chemical fertilizers, with intensive plowing up to six times per year.

The vintage

The 2019 vintage in Germany proved exceptional for Riesling production, marking a return to classic climatic conditions after several years of excessive heat. An unusually mild winter was followed by late frosts in April and May, then record temperatures in July creating heat stress. However, cooler conditions at the end of summer preserved essential acidity, while rains arriving around September 20 brought welcome relief after the summer drought. This combination enabled the grapes to develop remarkable concentration while maintaining more than ten grams of acidity per liter, creating the perfect balance between ripeness and freshness. Observers compared this vintage to the great classic German vintages of the 1980s and 1990s, praising wines of exceptional finesse and elegance with the capacity to age for several decades.

Winemaking and aging

The winemaking of the Riesling Scharzhofberger Spätlese 2019 follows a minimal-intervention philosophy handed down through generations of expertise. The grapes, hand-harvested at an advanced level of ripeness corresponding to the Spätlese classification, ferment in large traditional 1,000-liter wooden foudres, housed in the estate’s old vaulted cellars where temperature and humidity remain naturally constant. Fermentation is carried out exclusively with indigenous yeasts naturally present in the vineyard and cellar, with no addition of commercial yeasts, allowing an authentic expression of terroir. This natural process unfolds slowly over several months during winter, without strict temperature control. The incomplete fermentation leaves a natural residual sweetness, balanced by the high acidity characteristic of Scharzhofberg Riesling. Aging continues on fine lees for several months before bottling, building complexity and texture. No filtration or fining is used, preserving the integrity and authenticity of this vin de Moselle.

Grape variety

100% Riesling