Egon Müller: five generations of Riesling on the Scharzhofberg

From a monastery to a family

The Scharzhofberg belonged for centuries to the Trier monastery of St. Marien ad Martyres until French revolutionary troops occupied the Saar and expropriated church land. In 1797, Jean-Jacques Koch bought the Scharzhof from the French Republic, laying the foundation of the present estate, according to the family. His daughter Elisabeth married Felix Müller, and their son Egon Müller I built the international reputation from 1887 onwards with his wife Therese, serving the wines at world exhibitions up to the Paris Exposition of 1900. Egon Müller II died in a tractor accident in the vineyard in 1941, and his widow Elisabeth ran the property through the war. When Egon Müller III returned from captivity in August 1945, his first harvest yielded 1,200 litres of Riesling from 7.4 hectares.

Old vines, low yields, no herbicides

In 1954, Egon Müller III bought half of the neighbouring Le Gallais estate, 2.5 hectares in the Wiltinger Kupp and braune Kupp, and leased the other half. Decanter puts the family's holding in the Scharzhofberg at 8.5 hectares out of some 28, with a two-hectare block of ungrafted vines planted around 1900 behind the house. The estate describes its approach as minimalist: vines rooted in slate, some still on their 19th-century roots, yields never above 60 hectolitres per hectare and often closer to 30, ploughing up to six times a year, no chemical fertilisers, herbicides or insecticides and as few fungicides as possible. The northwestern microclimate means the family works, in its own words, on the edge of the possible.

The quality of a wine originates 100 percent in the vineyard.

A record at the Trier auction

Egon Müller IV has managed the estate since 1991, after six years alongside his father, who stayed active until his death in 2001. Decanter reports that dry wines were made from 1980 to 1997 and then dropped, that the first commercial Eiswein dates from 1961, and that pickers carry two baskets, one for healthy berries and one for those with noble rot. In September 2015, the 2003 Scharzhofberger Trockenbeerenauslese sold for 12,000 euros a bottle before fees at the VDP auction in Trier, a record for a young German wine, according to The Drinks Business. A fifth Egon, born in 2000, already appears on the family timeline. The estate belongs to the VDP and to Primum Familiae Vini.

This article was written by artificial intelligence and reviewed by our editors.