1971 Egon Müller Scharzhofberger Riesling Spätlese

The Müller family's connection to the Scharzhof dates to 1797, and by 1971 the estate was under Egon Müller III, whose uncompromising emphasis on vineyard work and late, selective harvesting established the wines among Germany's most revered Rieslings. The Scharzhofberg, a cool, steep Saar vineyard whose wines are labeled simply Scharzhofberger without a village name, is planted entirely to Riesling, and Müller reserves the Spätlese designation for emphatically ripe or overripe fruit harvested later from its best parcels—a style particularly suited to the remarkable 1971 vintage, one of the great postwar years for German Riesling.