2010 Scharzhofberger Auslese Goldkapsel

Headily perfumed essences of lily and gardenia waft from the glass of Muller 2010 Scharzhofberger Riesling Auslese gold capsule, which then surprises the palate with its relative sense of firmness but displays an explosively intense alliance of fresh lime and white peach nectar laced with pungent raw ginger and saline, somehow shimmering, crystalline mineral matter. The combination of near liqueur-like richness with scintillating energy on display here is unforgettable, and surely likely to carry this for four decades or more. (For the record, this wine is A.P. #7; but the only other 2010 Muller Scharzhofberger gold capsule is the “long” one – A.P. #10 – that will be auctioned, and is also reviewed in this report) ||Egon Muller scored a collection of striking successes in 2010, albeit at the price of tiny yields, comparable, he notes, to those of hail- and botrytis-ravaged 2006. This paucity of juice, combined with high ripeness, is reflected in the, for this estate, very surprising presence of only one Scharzhofberger each of Pradikat Kabinett and Spatlese, consisting of an amalgamation of several tiny lots. Nor need collectors fret about the identity of A.P. #s ... save when it comes to Trockenbeerenauslese, since a second one of those was fermenting at the time of my visit. (The 2009 vintage T.B.A. reviewed in Issue 192 now carries this year’s A.P. #11 and achieved at auction last September a record price of 5300 Euros for 750 ml.) Picking began October 14, “already with beautiful botrytis,” Muller notes, and was finished before the end of the month to respect the crew’s All Saint’s holiday weekend and because – although he indicates that there was negligible rain here at the beginning of November – Muller perceived scant likely benefit to postponing passes on an already extremely light-bearing vineyard. “We picked out what little botrytis-free fruit there was intermittently through the course of the harvest,” he adds, “and de-acidified musts selectively as seemed warranted, independent of the quality (i.e. Pradikat) level in question.” eRobertParker.com.February, 2012