2016 Scharzhofberger Riesling Spätlese

Robert Parker's Wine Advocate: The 2016 Scharzhofberger Spätlese has a clear and smoky/stony bouquet as well as a very delicate, bright and ripe (yet botrytis-free) Riesling aroma with floral and almost peppery slatey notes—fascinating! Mouth-fillingly lush and piquant on the palate, with beautifully generous, round and elegant fruit, remarkable intensity and length, this is a gorgeous Scharzhofberger made to drink for ages. Don’t drink before 2030, and don’t die before 2060. Tasted March 2018. - Stephan Reinhardt, Apr. 2018

Vinous: 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. - David Schildknecht, März 2018