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.