The things you find in a close-out bin at Sam's

I still have some of the 1976 Scharzhofberger von Hovel auslese as well as the 1976 auslese from Egon Muller. Of course the Muller usually is quite a bit more expensive, but the von Hovel often is a very good buy and often of high quality. On the average, the Muller wines seem to be more classic and respond better to long age than the von Hovel for auslese and above grades especially. However if you drink the wine from a very good year before about 10 years old, you miss a lot in auslese and above grades. For spatlese and kabinett, some like them young and perhaps the von Hovel may often be more drinkable young than the Muller that often can take long age in these grades. Other producers of Scharzhofberger that I have had are Hohe Domkirche and Koch. They can be good and usually cost much less than the Muller. It has been many years since I bought any of these. One of the most unusual wines from Scharzhofberger is a Fiene Auslese Nikolauswein 1970 from Koch. I still have a little and it is holding. The "fiene"(best grade) and "Nikolauswein" (grapes picked on a German holiday in December" can no longer be used on German wine labels since the 1971 wine law revisions.

Actually it is more accurate to say "feine" translates to fine or perhaps selected and "feinste" is a still higher grade that might translate as best. Although it is illegal to use these terms on labels since 1971, there is a way around this that is not illegal. For instance, Muller makes many batches of wine. The better ones have a gold capsule, and the best have a long gold capsule. Schloss Johannisberg has used two label designs. The normal one is the coat-of- arms one. The label for the better wines shows a picture of the Schloss instead. Others have used various systems of colors and bands on capsules to mark their better wines - all of this now is quite unofficial of course - you have to be in the know to use it. However each batch of wine sold since 1971 must have a different A.P. number on the label. A few people find out which AP number is associated with the best wine. If a reviewer does not give the AP number for a higher grade of German wine, there is no way of knowing if the description of the wine given corresponds to the wine you buy.

The more rare wines from Egon Muller can be very costly indeed. For instance his Scharzhofberger Eiswein 1983 sold for over US$ 700 per bottle in many cases when a little came on the US market shortly after release. This, at the time, was up there with the cost of the better wines from DRC.

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The "ei" in German is pronounced exactly like the English "i" in fine. "Feinste" thus is "finest", of course :-) Another difference is that the final "e" is audible and now you can pronounce German quite correctly! Anders

You dog! When I was there a few weeks ago, the German and Austrian wines were lumped together on 4 shelves just inside the store against the wall. Was this bottle there, or elsewhere? I was quite underwhelmed with their selection of German and Austrian wines, BTW.

Mark Lipton