I ended up making it to the dungeon-esque tasting room in the basement of Liberty Wine Merchants head office yesterday morning to join some colleagues for a fantastic tasting organized by John Bayley.

The tasting’s theme was recent vintages in the Saar and how they contributed to Egon’s wines. The pours included ’07, ’06, ’05, ’03 and ’02 of Egon Müller’s Scharzhoffberger Kabinett riesling label.

Egon III in his bibliothek

Some quick notes on Egon Müller:
“The quality of a wine is 100% made in the vineyard. In the cellar it is not possible to arrive even at 101% but it is no small achievement to be able to bring the full potential of the grapes into the bottle.” A somewhat choppy quote from the late Egon Müller III, but the message is obvious – great wine is grown in the vineyard and not created in the winery but it is still difficult to make great fruit reach its full potential in the wine. Now under the control of Egon Müller IV, the winemaking approach is still very traditional and minimalistic, allowing the vines and terroir to speak for themselves.

– firm believers in the old “Naturwein” philosophy. Nothing is added to the wine except sulphur dioxide: no chaptalisation (addition of sugar) or fining agents. 
- old vines, some still ungrafted and dating back to the 19th century
- low yields, never exceeding 60 hl/ha and for the last 4 years a mere 30 hl/ha
- all grapes are hand harvested
- natural yeast fermentation
- careful use of Chemicals: no chemical fertilizer, no herbicide, no insecticide and as little as possible fungicide
- they do not follow the normal German QmP laws (using the grape’s sugar levels at harvest to dictate the Prädikat level). For them ‘Kabinett’ is made from grapes ripe enough not to need chaptalisation and yet not overripe. Quite often grapes used for their Kabinett level could technically qualify for higher levels of Prädikat distinction. 

Some quick notes on the region:
The grapes for this wine come from the Scharzhofberg vineyard near the village of Wiltingen along the Saar River which is encompassed by the Mosel-Saar-Ruwer region of southwest Germany. Scharzhofberg is the most famous vineyard of the Saar and considered to be one of the top vineyards in Germany.   

Beautiful old-school labels. Egon Muller Scharzhofberger 05 Kabinett Riesling

Tasting Notes & Vintage Information:

07:

Peachy with green apple notes on the nose – many people noticed high levels of sulphur. The palate didn’t stray from the nose – canned peaches and green apples with a great long minerally finish. The off-dry sweetness is detected up front but quickly balanced with a follow up of acidity.

Vintage info: Adverse season. Wet and warm summer created mildew problems. Hail damage. Saved by two months: April was dry and warmer than usual and October was dry for harvest and allowed further ripening of grape. Due to late ripening, considered a very good vintage overall (cool august provided the acidity and october the sugar). 35 hl/ha yields.

06:

More limey and citrusy on the nose than the 07 with a slight engine oil component. Tons of lime with canned fruit cocktail on the palate with nice big lingering acidity and boost of minerality – with again a nice long finish. Seems less sweet than the 07 due to the bigger acidity. More lime and mineral components and less apple and peach components. 

Vintage info: Extremes! Hot and dry July followed by a cool, wet August. September was warm and dry and led to early botrytis. Devastating hail at end of september. Extremely low yields with lots of botrytis. Overall not a very good vintage.  

05:

* This wine was the star of the show. So good in fact that I even rather embarrassingly enjoyed the first slightly corked bottle that was poured until everyone else pointed out its flaw. My strange tasting notes of “slightly skunky?” should have probably been a give-away.

Bright nose of lime and chainsaw-oil (I think this is a sensory flashback to my youth, but perhaps is a combination of oil, petrol and sawdust). The mouth is very intense with concentrated citrus notes (mostly lime) followed by tingling minerality. This distinctively has a slight botrytis character in the finish (dried apricots?). Amazing mouthfeel…. fairly sweet but matched with bracing acidity right from the start. Trails off with nice lingering acid and leaves you with characters of green apples and lime. Fantastic.

Vintage info: One of the greatest vintages in recent history. Fairly average summer (cool August preserved acidity), hot and humid september with lots of botrytis. Extremely low yields (15 hl/ha).

03:

Odd coconut note up front (not from oak at all). More lime and petrol on the nose combined with a dusty peach component. Sweetness up front with characters of canned pears, tropical fruit cocktail (pineapple and cherry) followed by a flood of acidity. Less acid than 05 – the heat from this vintage shows through with the tropical fruit flavours. Again nice long finish.

Vintage info: Dry summer and much higher temps that average. Lack of water and heat led to 10-15% of sunburn damage in grapes. High sugar levels evident in the wine. Yields averaging less that 30 hl/ha. Very little botrytis.  

02:

The nose is more restrained than the previous wines. Lime, some petrol and slight canned fruit (tinniness) on the nose. Drier up front with a citrusy and chalky taste – lots of lime! Big acid. Much more lean style than the rest. Suggested that this wine might be in a dormant stage of its aging process which is apparently known to happen, as it was clearly the least pronounced.

Vintage info: Average season. Lots of moisture which led to lots of mildew. Some vineyards needed to be sprayed up to 6 times. Very bad wind which ruined 10-15% of the crop. Harvest quality ended up being high. Ripeness and high sugar levels but fairly low acid.  

Overall, amazing wines made great fun with side by side comparison of eachother and detailed vintage information. Buy the 2005 if you see it.

The 2007 Egon Müller Scharzhofberger Kabinett Riesling can be found at Liberty Wine Merchants in Vancouver for $74.99. I believe some back vintages are still available in some of the stores (unfortunately I don’t think the ’05 is still around). 

Check out Egon Müller’s rad retro Web 1.0 website!

Thanks to John Bayley for organizing this tasting and to Liberty Wine Merchants.