On the nose, Egon Müller's 2015 Scharzhofberger Riesling Trockenbeerenauslese is super clear, fresh and mineral in its concentrated bouquet of perfectly ripe peach aromas and fresh lemon flavors. Viscous in its highly finessed and seamless texture, but again clear, vital and elegant, this Riesling is structured by a super fine acidity. It has fine tannins and a lingering salinity. This is a legendary, finessed and weightless TBA of immortal elegance. What is the quantity of this elixir, Mister Müller?... "Not that crazy much," he replied with a Sphinx-like smile. Müller rarely speaks about quantities, especially when they are not that bad. So for this TBA, there might have been 40 liters, 70 or even more produced—but this is pure speculation. I suppose the quantity is rather small, since there was not much botrytis in 2015 and Müller only accepts perfect raisins for his Scharzhofberger TBA. The legendary 2003 was auctioned for more than $16,000 (per .75-liter bottle) in September 2015, which was the worldwide highest price ever achieved for a first release. The 2015 is less rich and generous, but unrivaled in its weightless finesse, precision and freshness. Its leaner, highly elegant and vital style is comparable to the 1971 TBA, which I was lucky to share with Egon Müller and others in the library after the tasting. A release date of the 2015 is not yet scheduled, but wine lovers with an according pocket should be prepared to wait for years.

The Muller 2011 Scharzhofberger Riesling Trockenbeerenauslese – which was not sold via auction – delivers peach preserves, honey, nougat and caramel mingled with prickly spice, piquant candied lemon rind and pungent sweat, for an exceedingly high-toned nose and correspondingly penetrating as well as viscous and creamy palate. There is an aura of varnished aromatic woods about this that some might think pushes the envelope in terms of volatility, but along with a persistent rivulet of bright fresh lemon and lime, it serves for pushback and counterpoint to the wine’s enormous sweetness. A saline, smoky animal savor to the wine’s prodigious, multifaceted finish renders it almost like having your morsel of foie gras in the glass. Expect this to outlive you unless you only recently became legally eligible to drink it in the U.S.A. Egon Muller’s 2011 collection – tasted last September at the Scharzhof in his absence – represents an intensively selective harvest that extended from mid-October into November and resulted in one of the numerically smallest number of individual bottlings in the history of this venerable estate smaller even than the number from 20100, but also some that will go down as landmarks in that history. It seems that – by way of explaining this paucity – in the realm of Kabinett and Spatlese, the individual lots were simply deemed to harmonize well with one another and amalgamated; while in upper-Pradikat realms, the aggregate volume was no larger than in other recent vintages. Importer: Frederick Wildman & Sons, New York, NY; tel. (212) 355-0700