The wine is Scharzhofberger Feine Auslese Nikolauswein 1970, Koch,
gerrntet 5./6. Dezember, 9% alcohol, (pre 1971s had no AP Nr). I
bought it in the mid 70s and it has been properly stored The fill was
quite high, and the cork came out in one piece easily, often not the
case for wines nearing 40 years old.

Egon Muller makes the most expensive and often the best
Scharzhofberger, but a few other owners make outstanding wine in some
years. I would rate Scharzhofberger as the best Riesling vineyard in
Germany and perhaps the world. The best examples often are rather
austere when young and can require many years to a few decades to
develop fully for the higher grades. But the wait is well worth it,
and young Scharzhofberger can only give hints of what it may become.

This wine is very different from that of a very warm year such as
1976. It is very pure textbook Riesling in character, but with extreme
intensity now. When young, it was rather harsh and only gave hints of
what it might be in the future. But the ugly duckling has now evolved
into a swan. There is very little petrol character of old Riesling
apparent. The color is light yellow. Many Rieslings in 1970 had to be
picked too young, and these types are now long gone. However in a few
areas some left a few grapes on the vines hoping for an auslese or
eiswein. The wait to mature turned out to be very long indeed. This
auslese was harvested on December 5./6. of 1970 and thus was entitled
to the name Nikolauswein (St. Nikolaus wine) by the pre-1971 laws.
Also feine was allowed by pre-1971 laws. I am not certain, but 1971
wine laws likely also did not allow giving the date of harvest as Dec
5/6 on the label. Apparently the rather cool extended growing season
allowed the wine to retain a very pure Riesling character, but very
concentrated by evaporation. The balance is now near perfect. The wine
is quite sweet, but as usual in Saar Rieslings, there is enough
acidity, now smooth, to balance. I am guessing that this wine will
easily make 50 years without showing undue age. I have reported on
this wine earlier and have not found an off bottle yet.