Egon Muller : Riesling Scharzhofberger Eiswein 2016

Tasting Characteristics and Advice for Egon Müller’s Riesling Scharzhofberger Eiswein 2016

Tasting

Appearance

The wine shows a pale yellow hue with amber highlights, reflecting its exceptional concentration.

Nose

The nose is remarkably clear and precise, revealing concentrated pineapple aromas that dominate the profile. Notes of passion fruit, pear, elderflower, apricot, aromatic herbs, and delicate spices follow. This complex aromatic range also suggests exotic touches reminiscent of durian, creating a bouquet of absolute purity.

Palate

On the palate, the wine is generous, rounded, and vibrant, offering a creamy texture and remarkable depth. Juicy summer fruits, notably apricot, intertwine with a succulent acidity that is never excessive. The wine’s superb salinity brings a striking mineral dimension, evoking lime, grapefruit, and crushed slate stones. This almost electric tension between intense sweetness, vibrant acidity, and pronounced minerality creates perfect balance. The exceptionally long finish lingers for several minutes with recurring, zesty fruit notes. At this stage in its evolution, the Eiswein character shows itself delicately on the finish.

Food and wine pairings

This Scharzhofberger Eiswein 2016 pairs beautifully with blue-veined cheeses such as gorgonzola, Roquefort, or Stilton, whose salty intensity is balanced by the wine’s sweetness. Creamy cheeses like Brie, Camembert, or triple-cream cheeses also make excellent partners. For a simple yet refined pairing, serve it with Marcona almonds and a block of gorgonzola. For dessert, opt for fruit-based preparations such as apple, pear, or apricot tarts, as well as creamy desserts like white chocolate crème brûlée or panna cotta. Surprisingly, this wine also harmonizes with savory dishes: foie gras, roast duck, spicy Asian cuisine (Thai curry, Chinese or Indian dishes), or scallops in butter with bacon.

Serving and cellaring

The Riesling Scharzhofberger Eiswein 2016 should be served well chilled, after one to two hours in the refrigerator. Pour small amounts into suitable glasses that allow good aeration while respecting the wine’s richness. According to critics, this wine is delicious now but should reveal its best potential over the next five years. The optimal drinking window extends from around 2026 to 2051, once the sweetness has further integrated.

An exceptional Moselle-Sarre-Ruwer Eiswein, a jewel of the Egon Müller estate

The estate

Founded in 1797 when Jean-Jacques Koch acquired the Scharzhof from the French Republic following the Revolution, Weingut Egon Müller is today one of the most prestigious wine estates in the world. Located in the Saar Valley in Moselle-Sarre-Ruwer, the estate covers 16.5 hectares, including 8.5 hectares in the legendary Scharzhofberg vineyard. Egon Müller, the sixth generation of the family and the current owner since 1991, perpetuates a tradition of excellence recognized internationally. The estate is the only German member of the Primum Familiae Vini association, and Egon Müller became its president in 2024. In 2023, he received the Golden Vines Best Fine Wine Producer in Europe Award.

The vineyard

The Scharzhofberger Eiswein 2016 comes from the famous Scharzhofberg vineyard, located near the village of Wiltingen in the Saar Valley. This exceptional site, classified as an “ortsteil” (equivalent to a Grand Cru), covers around 28 hectares shared among several producers, with Egon Müller owning the largest holding at 8.5 hectares. The vineyard is planted on steep, south-facing slopes, with gradients reaching 30 to 60%, at an altitude between 190 and 310 meters. The soils are composed of weathered Devonian gray slate, sometimes mixed with graywacke and quartzite, providing excellent drainage and a unique ability to store daytime heat and release it at night. This distinctive geology, several hundred million years old, gives the wines their characteristic minerality. The estate cultivates parcels of ungrafted vines dating from the 1890s and 1900s—true viticultural treasures. Vineyard management prioritizes extremely low yields, generally around 30 hectoliters per hectare, with hand harvesting and minimal chemical intervention.

The vintage

The 2016 vintage in Moselle got off to a difficult start with a catastrophic spring marked by six weeks of continuous rain causing downy mildew outbreaks, as well as damage from caterpillars and localized hail. The late and uneven flowering in June raised serious concerns about the vintage’s quality. However, from July 1 onward, the weather conditions improved dramatically, with dry, sunny weather that lasted through harvest. September 2016 was one of the hottest months ever recorded in the region, significantly accelerating grape ripening despite the initial delay. Extreme temperatures in late August caused some sunburn on exposed berries, reducing yields by 10 to 30% in certain parcels. For Eiswein production, conditions proved ideal: healthy, clean grapes thanks to the dry summer, adequate sugar concentration, and above all three distinct freezing windows enabling harvests on November 30, December 5, 2016, and January 6, 2017. This exceptional combination of circumstances made 2016 a great vintage for Moselle Eiswein.

Winemaking and aging

The Riesling Scharzhofberger Eiswein 2016 was harvested on two frozen picking dates, November 30 and December 5, 2016, when temperatures dropped below -7°C. The grapes, naturally frozen on the vine, were hand-picked and pressed immediately while still frozen. This process separates the frozen water from the juice concentrated in sugars and aromas, yielding only 10 to 20% of the original volume as precious must. Fermentation took place in the estate’s traditional 1,000-liter oak foudres, using exclusively indigenous yeasts. Because of the extreme sugar concentration, fermentation progressed very slowly over several months, stopping naturally due to the low pH and light sulfiting. The wine then rested on its lees until January before being racked, filtered, and bottled around March. This traditional method, practiced at the estate for generations, helps preserve aromatic purity and the authentic expression of the Scharzhofberg terroir.

Grape variety

This German white wine is 100% Riesling