Recently I saw a 2017 Muller-Gatoir Scheurebe downtown…and heck I thought I still have a 2014. Just pulled out of the cellar, what should I expect?
Scheurebe doesn’t change much over the first ten years. It should still be full of grapefruit, sage and perhaps a little gooseberry.
Must we? 
I have some 2015 Keller. In another thread Martin Zwick said to drink up, fwiw.
I have some 2006 Kracher Scheurebe wine. It was going strong 3 years ago and should go another 10 years. It’s a big sweet wine. Don’t know if all Scheurebe are sweet.
It’s likely delicious, but if he’s worried about it going downhill that fast then it’s a badly made Scheu.
No, not all scheurebe is sweet.
Don’t you think some tropical notes are typical too? I’m sure I have a lot less experience than you, but I seem to remember something riper than what you’re talking about in most or all of the ones I’ve had.
The old HGS Spatlese versions at Catoir and sometimes the Kruger Rumpf versions go that way, and those are in fact my favorites.
The drier versions seem to focus more on the citrus side to my way of tasting.
If it was the Haardter Mandelring Scheurebe Spätlese, then I would buy all you can if you like that 2014 when you open it. Following is my TN- but keep in mind 2017 is an uncommonly big vintage in many German regions and I have found the wines very difficult to enjoy young,
pale yellow color, on the nose dark fruits, figs, lemons, on the palate another reminder of just how extreme the 2017 vintage has been in Germany, awesome impact- wild and weird (a good thing to say when speaking of Scheurebe), loads of dark fruits in the mid-palate and the sort of mousse and cocoa bean note that usually makes this friendly at a young age is so intense and tight as to seem slightly bitter, piercing acid finish- racy and hard, everything is here for this to be an uncommonly long lived and decadent Scheurebe- but it has not quite come together just yet, a rare case where it is best to just bury a Scheurebe in the cellar and forget it for a while.
(****)+, 2025-2050
I agree with David- Scheurebe won’t do much for several years, which is why I think many people took to drinking it young. But if well made, it can last for quite a long time and also improve- if not have quite the dramatic transformations of a great Riesling. A few years ago I had a 1994 Muller-Catoir Scheurebe Spatlese that was sensationally good. Still as fresh and vibrant as a new vintage, but with some added nuance. The old Muller-Catoir Scheurebe’s are some of the best.
While we are talking Scheurebe- if I may be permitted to engage in a bit of thread drift since the subject does not often come up,
Has anyone ever seen or tried the 1994 Reichsrat Von Buhl Ruppertsberger Reiterpfad Scheurebe Trockenbeerenauslese? I got a 3 pack from the Rudi Weist collection at auction and I actually had to create an entry for that particular vintage in CT. There was already a BA. 1994 was a very fine vintage for Scheurebe- so I think this could be interesting, but with only 3 bottles of an evidently very rare curiosity I am hoping to have something to go on before taking the plunge. Even TNs for other dessert wines of Von Buhl from the era would be helpful.
Let me be clear, Keller Scheurebe can age. A few months ago I had a 2012 Keller Scheurebe which was quite fine.
Of course the 2015 Keller Scheurebe is not (!) going downhill. I rather suggested to open a 2015 bottle now, as I assume Joshua has a case of Scheurebe and not just 1 bottle.
Owed to Scheurebe
not nearly so shy
as the name would imply
its pungent aromas
revive cats from comas
© james oliver wright 2003
Allow me to pause to wipe away a tear…
When Hans Gunter Schwarz was the winemaker at Muller Catoir he had am amazingly deft hand for Scheurebe. I’ve never tasted any others half as good (well, maybe the 2002 Weegmuller).
That said, I haven’t given the more recent MC vintages a try and maybe they’ve gotten a better handle on things? I was so disappointed by 04 and 05 that I stopped trying them. And there are certainly good renditions elsewhere, including Darting and Kruger Rumpf.
when i was more active and over in Germany a lot (before i buried myself in Vienna)
my buddies in the Pfalz – plus the illustrious HG Schwarz cited above –
were the Scheurebe doctors
never got tired of needling them,
that the best dry Scheu in all of D, year after year,
was the Iphöfer Kronsberg Scheurebe Spätlese Trocken from Dr Wirsching
In the Pfalz, Pfeffingen also deserves a mention. I came to this late and don’t go back as far as the early aughts, but they’ve been my favorite in the past few years.
Pfeffingen always among the tops for Scheu
Good points about pfeffingen and, of course, Iphofer. I loathe Bocksbeutels so much that I try to put out of mind how good the wines are.
LOVE to read about the pfeffingen scheurebe.
I have been a fan and regular visitor since the late 80ies, and they were and are exactly as david said: almost “unkaputtbar” (undestroyable), at least the sweet ones from spat upwards and the ripe trockens (amazing balance albeit 13-13.5 alc). also very tasty BA an even eisweins from the nineties.
I have a single bottle left of a sweet 1992 scheu spat from pfeffingen which i used to drink in the summer of 1993 with a very nice girl friend.
I cherich that bottle knowing that it will take me back to the taste of that summer…
Minges (Pfalz) is another to look out for.