For over a century, the Egon Müller-Scharzhof winery has undoubtedly been among the best in the world, and is undeniably the flagship of German winemaking. It is the only German member of the "Primum Familiae Vini," an association of 12 legendary wineries, placing it alongside such renowned names as Mouton Rothschild, Vega-Sicilia, Sassicaia, and Haut-Brion. The winery, called Scharzhof, is located near Wiltingen at the foot of the eponymous, world-famous Scharzhofberg in a side valley of the Saar. In this former monastery, the world's best sweet wines are produced from the Riesling grape variety, which have earned the winery its legendary reputation. Since the 18th century, the Müller family has cultivated vineyards on the Scharzhofberg, a south-facing slope of over 27 hectares between Wiltingen and Oberemmel, considered one of the best Riesling vineyards in the world. However, the original Scharzhofberg was significantly smaller, and the winery still owns over 8 hectares in the heart of the Scharzhofberg, making it the largest shareholder ahead of Reichsgraf von Kesselstatt, the Episcopal wineries, von Hövel, and Van Volxem. To this day, the winery cultivates more than 3 hectares of root-stock vines, over 100 years old (planted between 1890-1900), which, year after year, with the greatest effort, produce the winery's best wines, such as the Scharzhofberger Kabinett Alte Reben Versteigerung, on heavily weathered blue Devonian slate soils. Besides the Scharzhofberg, Egon Müller owns other outstanding vineyards on the Saar. He markets the wines from the Wiltinger Braune Kupp vineyard under his second winery, Le Gallais, and for his estate wine Scharzhof, he uses grapes from no less prestigious vineyards than Saarburger Rausch, Wawerner Jesuitengarten, Oberemmeler Rosenberg, and, depending on the vintage, more or less Scharzhofberger. Mr. Müller considers the slate soils and the extended, slow ripening periods to be the main reasons for the quality of his wines. His family chose the vineyards not because they yielded the highest must weights, but because they produced, and continue to produce, very elegant wines! To understand their current world renown, it is worth taking a look at their history:


"World-class bastards for over a century"


For over 200 years, the Müller family, now in its fifth generation, has been cultivating vineyards at the foot of the Scharzhofberg. Jean-Jacques Koch, the great-great-great-grandfather of Egon Müller, was able to buy the former Trier monastery estate St. Martin from the French Republic in 1797, during the time of the French Revolution. His son, Egon Müller I., brought the winery to international fame for the first time, and it has been the custom for four generations that the firstborn male descendant bears the name Egon. Today, the legendary winery is managed by Egon Müller IV. His son, Egon Müller V., is now of age and increasingly works in the business alongside his own Scharzhofberg honey production. Under the direction of Egon I (1852-1936), son of Felix Müller and Elisabeth Koch, the wines from the Scharzhofberg first attracted attention at the beginning of the 20th century when they won first prize at the World Fairs in Paris (1900), St. Louis (1904), and Brussels (1910). His son, Egon Müller II (1887-1941), unfortunately died far too young in a tragic tractor accident in the vineyard, so his widow had to manage the business alone through the Second World War – successfully! In 1945, Egon Müller III. took over, immediately initiated the groundbreaking quality policy of the house, and uncompromisingly focused the business on the production of high-class wines – a wise decision, as it turned out, which brought the winery renewed prosperity. This enabled him to purchase plots (1985 & 1997) in the Scharzhofberg twice, as well as the Kanzemer winery Le Gallais with outstanding vineyards in the Wiltinger Kupp and Braunen Kupp.
But what is the reason for the legendary reputation of the Egon Müller-Scharzhof winery?


"A cask of wine that is enough to pay all the costs incurred at the winery in one year"


The legendary VDP auctions in Trier played a decisive role. In 1896, Egon Müller I achieved the incredible price of 10,500 gold marks for a fuder (a traditional 1,000-liter oak barrel) of the 1895 Scharzhofberger finest Auslese. From today's perspective, this corresponds to a purchasing power of more than €130,000! In the following years, he was able to achieve outstanding results of around 10,000 gold marks per fuder at the annual auction, before a fuder of 1911 Scharzhofberger was auctioned in 1913 for the still unsurpassed price of 10,600 gold marks. To put the prices of that time into perspective: At that time, it was possible to pay the entire annual costs of the winery with just one fuder of wine! These fine wines were served at European royal courts and in the finest restaurants worldwide. Under the direction of Egon Müller II and subsequently his widow, the winery was unable to match the auction results around 1900 due to the consequences of the Second World War, before Egon Müller III, from the late 1980s/early 1990s, was able to achieve consistently high prices again at the annual VDP auction in Trier. His son, the current owner Egon Müller IV (born 1959), ensured from his takeover in 1997 that the wines from Scharzhof regained their former renown worldwide. This was soon reflected in the results of the Trier wine auction, where he set one world record after another. The 131st Prädikatswein auction of the Großer Ring in Trier in 2015 remains unforgettable, where his Egon Müller Scharzhofberger Riesling Trockenbeerenauslese 2003 set the current world record for the most expensive wine ever brought to market at €12,000 (net). Including the auction fee of 5% and 19% VAT, that's almost €15,000 gross per 0.75l bottle! A total of 22 0.75l bottles were auctioned at a price of €12,000 each, as well as 36 half (0.375l) bottles at a price of €5,500 per bottle. Therefore...
30 liters of this exceptional wine achieved a net revenue of €462,000, thus returning to the fabulous prices of 1900 set by his great-great-great-grandfather Egon Müller I. This impressively demonstrates the reputation that Saar wines enjoy internationally today.
But what are the reasons that wine lovers all over the world are willing to pay these enormous prices?


"Outstanding wine quality for over 100 years, scarcity, and the unparalleled longevity of the wines are the main reasons for the legendary reputation."


1. Outstanding wine quality for over 100 years

A decisive factor for outstanding quality is consistency. Thus, the Egon Müller wine collection has been a contender for the collection of the year practically every year for over 100 years. During this time, there have been average and numerous poor vintages, but while other once world-famous wineries did not survive some crises, excellent wines were also produced at Scharzhof in poor vintages. Egon Müller IV. considers 1987 as the last truly bad vintage, but even his 1987 wines now, after over 30 years of aging, prove to be elegant, mineral Rieslings.

2. Scarcity

One of the most important factors for the outstanding quality of Egon Müller wines is the extremely low yields. This means that only around 100,000 bottles are produced annually at Scharzhof, and significantly fewer in many years – far too little to meet the enormous worldwide demand.

3. Longevity

The Scharzhofberger wines enjoy their legendary reputation primarily because of their enormous longevity. Hardly any other wine in the world matures as excellently as the wines from Scharzhofberg, and Egon Müller's Rieslings crown the whole thing. The maturation potential of his wines should therefore be expressed in decades rather than years! In their youth, his wines from Scharzhofberg often appear very closed and need many years of cellar aging to fully develop their quality. Even for the seemingly simple Gutswein Scharzhof, an aging time of at least 10 years is recommended; Kabinett wines often need 20 years to truly shine; Spätlesen reach their peak after 30 years, and Auslesen wines amaze with their brilliance and mineral freshness even after 50 years or more! The Goldkapsel and auction wines, Beerenauslesen, Trockenbeerenauslesen, and Eisweins are true monuments of winemaking and practically have no expiration date. With good storage, they can easily outlive a human lifespan.

But what is the secret behind the inimitable aging potential of Egon Müller's Rieslings?


"The key to outstanding wine quality lies in the work in the vineyard."


The main reason for the quality of Egon Müller's Rieslings lies in his philosophy, which has solidified over a century and was aptly summarized by Egon Müller III:
"The quality of the wine is 100 percent determined in the vineyard. In the cellar, it is not possible to achieve even 101 percent. But it is a great achievement to bring the full potential of the grapes into the bottle.”
Therefore, work in the vineyard enjoys the highest priority, because the Müllers are convinced that the aromas for a great wine are entirely created in the ripening grapes in the vineyard. For this reason, he cultivates the vines, some of which are over 100 years old, largely according to traditional methods, which is mainly due to the high average age of his vines and distinguishes him from other producers. For example, he forgoes green harvesting to reduce yield, because his old vines naturally bear only a few highly aromatic berries. The average yield is often only 30-40 hl/ha, which is not even half the normal hectare yields of other top wineries. In autumn, the grapes are carefully selected in several picking rounds to perfectly bring out the different predicate levels. Egon Müller thus produces a wide variety of predicate levels in different sweetness levels from a single grape variety – Riesling – from fruity Kabinett to noble sweet Trockenbeerenauslese and, if the weather permits, also Eiswein. For his noble sweet wines, the influence of the noble rot fungus Botrytis cinerea is crucial, because the berries affected by it ripen on the vine under ideal weather conditions and give Egon Müller's sweet wines their complex, aromatic depth and oily texture. Therefore, Egon Müller usually forgoes the last spraying against Botrytis to promote the settlement of the noble rot fungus. In general, he tries to keep his plant protection management as moderate as possible, adapted to the vintage.


"Traditional winemaking craftsmanship for world-class wines with unparalleled finesse and balance"


Basically, all grapes are gently pressed using an old basket press and fermented in the old vaulted cellar in traditional large wooden barrels at moderate temperatures of around 15 degrees Celsius using natural yeasts. Nothing has changed since the beginnings under Egon Müller I. The winery still relies on the traditional large wooden barrels because Egon Müller values the minimal oxygen permeability of the oak wood. Through micro-oxygenation, the relatively high acidity of his Rieslings blends more harmoniously into the wines, so that his Rieslings appear less steely and brittle than if they were aged in stainless steel.
Another constant runs through the history of the winery: Since its inception, only off-dry Rieslings have been produced. Although there were attempts with dry wines in the 1980s after the glycol scandal, Egon Müller IV quickly came to the conviction that off-dry wines ideally reflect the terroir of the Scharzhofberg, and that it would therefore be pointless for him to produce dry wines.

Anyone expecting his wines to taste cloyingly sweet will be proven wrong with the first sip. His wines possess an unparalleled finesse and balance, in which the supporting residual sweetness fits perfectly into the framework of pronounced salty slate minerality, razor-sharp acidity, and brilliant fruit and herbal aromas. A typical Scharzhofberger from Egon Müller exhibits pronounced notes of ripe citrus fruits (grapefruit, lemon), yellow stone fruit (mirabelle plums), exotic fruits (passion fruit, maracuja, blackcurrant), as well as minty hints and the typically pronounced salty/smoky slate minerality. The higher the predicate, the more the influence of Botrytis comes into play, and the aromatics of these noble sweet masterpieces turn towards the finest dried fruit aromas (raisins, figs, dates) as well as noble honey, tobacco, and spice aromas.