German Wine Price Rant

I see in the latest WS that Egon Muller has a Riesling Spatlese from Scharzhofberger for ONLY $135. What is going on in this age of recession? I can clearly remember my buddy and I NEVER willing to pay more than $5 for any Kabinett in mid-80's which included many great producers. I understand that overall prices on everything have increased many fold but this is ridiculous. This was not even an auction wine. I recently bought a half-case of Lingenfelder HT 2007 Scheurebe Kabinett Grosskarlbacher Burgweg for $17 per which is easily 1/2 as excellent as the Muller. I guess I am just living in the past but there are I think many great German wine deals out there if you are willing to search them out. Am I just a troglodite living in a cave or have German wine prices gone thru the roof? I'll take my OCD medication now!

[David M. Bueker]

Supply, meet demand.

Also, these wonderful wines are not economically sustainable at $5 or even $17.

What David said.
Plus, list MSRP for what's probably the most expensive Riesling Spatlese I can think of is not really a direct comparison vs market price for a Scheurebe Kabinett from a producer primarily known for QPR. A bit like comparing a good deal on a Toyota Corolla to list price on a BMW 6 series.
(note: I drive an old Corolla)
There are still plenty of affordable Germans wines- for 2011s I paid $17 for Leitz RM Spatlese, $20 for Donnhoff OberL and Willi S Gr.Dom Kabinetts_.

Yup, that is a lot of money. But the top wines from Burgundy not to mention Bordeaux cost far more. I just found the 2011 EM Scharzhofberger Spät here today for 65€. Keller makes even more expensive Riesling, as does Bürklin-Wolf (80€ for 2011 Forster Kirchenstück GC, probably closer to $200 if you can find it in the US) -and those are dry. I don’t condone those prices AT ALL, but Riesling is at least the equal qualitatively as other varieties and it is nice to see that it is treated as such in some parts of the world…again.

Of course you can easily find the equal to these wines from other producers (or other vineyards from the same producers in some cases) for a fraction of the price.

Cheers,
Bill