Scharzhofberger Spatlese, Weingut Egon Müller 2016

Scents of white peach, white currant, lime and grapefruit lead to a lusciously fruited palate strongly citric in its bright juiciness but with less naked sense of electric acidity than in the corresponding Kabinett, or in this year’s Braune Kupp Spätlese. There is even a hint of creaminess to the texture. A mingling of ripe honeydew melon with alluring, honeysuckle-like inner-mouth perfume further enhances the sense of advanced phenolic evolution that resulted from picking in November, 10 days after the last grapes for Kabinett. To cite “deftly integrated acids and residual sugar” doesn’t begin to do justice to what is displayed here. And yet the finish, as long-lasting as it is, comes off as restrained and tucked in at the edges, no doubt pointing to a wine very much in need of bottle age to show its true potential.

This offers a beautiful and clean even if rather reduced nose of pear, anise, gooseberry, apple, herbs and spices. The wine proves gorgeously smooth as it develops the balance of a light Auslese on the palate. Peach, cassis and creamy herbs make for a superbly elegant feel on the palate and in the long and playful finish. This is still hugely backward at this early stage yet proves pure, precise, smooth and above all remarkably persistent as tart minerals round off the mouth-watering feel in the after-taste. Drink 2031-2051.