2007 Scharzhofberger Kabinett

The 2007 Scharzhofberger Riesling Kabinett A.P. #4 smells of ripe Bosc pear and lightly-poached pit fruits, but on the palate – while certainly not stinting on fruit – offers one of the most intensely mineral-like personalities one can imagine (even for the Saar!). Toasted almond and fruit pit bitterness; stone, chalk, and salt; are balanced – as the wine’s fruit is enhanced – by impeccably judged, discreet residual sugar, and this finishes with impressive persistence. Muller intimated that this bottling had been in the running for choice as the auctioned lot, and based on its performance the day I tasted, it would have been my choice! I anticipate one could be rewarded by holding it for as long as 15-20 years. Egon Muller compares his 2007s with the wines of 1997, which here displayed exceptional purity and advanced, largely noble rot-free ripeness, although the total number of bottlings in 2007 was significantly smaller, and the number of Auslesen alone this year three times greater. (I missed tasting one Spatlese, A.P. #6 that sold out early on, and I have not yet tasted this year’s Trockenbeerenauslese, which hadn’t even finished fermenting on the occasion when I tasted Muller’s other 2007s.) Importer: Frederick Wildman & Sons, New York, NY (212) 355 0700