Scharzhofberger Riesling Spatlese A P #9 2007

Gardenia, musk melon, and high-toned almond and pistachio extract rise alluringly from the glass of 2007 Scharzhofberger Riesling Spatlese A.P. #9. Musk, honey, and caramel mingle on its creamy, rich palate, and as with this year’s Braune Kupp Spatlese, there is a wealth of saline, savory mineral nuance here, not to mention a wafting persistence of floral perfume. We are certainly far from the tartly fresh orchard fruits or the citrus of so many 2007s here, but the wine still preserves a sense of refreshment in its long, brown spice- and toasted nut-inflected finish. Expect this beauty to be worth following for a quarter century. Egon Muller compares his 2007s with the wines of 1997, which here displayed exceptional purity and advanced, largely noble rot-free ripeness, although the total number of bottlings in 2007 was significantly smaller, and the number of Auslesen alone this year three times greater. (I missed tasting one Spatlese, A.P. #6 that sold out early on, and I have not yet tasted this year’s Trockenbeerenauslese, which hadn’t even finished fermenting on the occasion when I tasted Muller’s other 2007s.) (DS, 11/2009)