2006 Riesling Auslese

The auction 2006 Scharzhofberger Riesling Auslese A.P. #11 catapults the taster into a whole new range of richness. Caramelized peach, maracuja, Persian melon, grilled pineapple, grapefruit, and vanilla inform the nose and a luscious, voluminous palate. The combination of purity, refinement, and wafting florality, vanilla cream richness and silkiness with bright, refreshing citricity and sheer wet stone slate suggests an energized and levitated version of the 1975s (which, admittedly, I first tasted only in 1981, and prior to my gaining serious expertise in German wine). A very faint note of white raisin emerges from the sweetly-scented empty glass. This remarkable elixir will no doubt last for a half century or longer. Despite the challenges of hail (which struck the Scharzhofberg but not the Braune Kupp) and rampant ripening and botrytis, Egon Muller has turned out a 2006 collection whose quality potential he says can be compared (as he did 2005’s) with 1976, the vintage his father believed to have been the finest of his time. “This was a vintage with massive botrytis,” Muller observes, “yet when you taste the wines today, you are amazed at how elegant and refreshing they are.” (Note: stellar quality was achieved in 1976 almost exclusively on the Saar, not in Germany’s other Riesling-growing regions.) Muller also draws comparison between the styles of 2006 and 1999, although the latter vintage involved a great deal of selection and resulted in no fewer than 37 different bottlings. “Surprisingly,” he says, “in 2006 we did very, very little selection. We played around a bit here and there, but we realized very quickly that the must weights were soaring, and haste in the vineyards and the cellar was essential. We did harvest a very small amount of Trockenbeerenauslese – we wanted to do that. But a lot more would have been possible had there been the time.” Importer: Frederick Wildman & Sons, New York, NY; tel. (212) 355-0700