Scharzhofberg
Overview
The Scharzhofberg at Wiltingen is the most celebrated vineyard of the Saar and, by common consent of German references, stands with the Würzburger Stein as the most famous vineyard site in Germany. The wein.plus lexicon and the VDP both record it at 28 hectares, planted exclusively to Riesling and classified VDP.GROSSE LAGE. Labels read simply Scharzhofberg or Scharzhofberger with no village name attached: in 1971 the hill was declared an Ortsteil (district) of Wiltingen, one of a handful of German sites whose name stands alone on the label, and the row slug here follows the adjectival label form Scharzhofberger.
The site's history runs through a single estate. The hill belonged to the Trier monastery of St. Marien ad Martyres from around the year 700 until the French occupation of the Rhine's left bank, when it was secularized and sold at auction in 1797 to Jean-Jacques Koch, whose descendants by marriage are the Müller family of the Scharzhof, the manor at the foot of the slope. Weingut Egon Müller-Scharzhof holds 8.3 of the 28 hectares today, and its Scharzhofberger Rieslings, from Kabinett through Trockenbeerenauslese, define the site's international reputation.
Terroir & Position
The Scharzhofberg is not a river-front site. It rises east of Wiltingen in a wind-open transverse side valley set back from the Saar, with slopes facing south and southeast (slightly southwest at the western end) at gradients of 30-60 percent, between roughly 190 and 310 meters of elevation. The microclimate is cool and wind-exposed with marked temperature swings, conditions that favor the light, high-acid, long-lived Rieslings the Saar is known for.
The soil is deeply weathered grey and reddish Devonian slate; the wein.plus lexicon notes a rock content around 70 percent, unusually high even for the Mosel, with clayey-silty fine earth of crumbly structure and iron inclusions accounting for the red coloration.
The current 28 hectares are larger than the historic core: with the 1971 wine law roughly 10 hectares of the upper hill, previously belonging to the vineyard then called Scharzberg, were incorporated into the Scharzhofberg. The named upper parcel Pergentsknopp, bottled separately by Van Volxem and held by Reichsgraf von Kesselstatt, comes from this later-planted section.
Producers
Ownership is divided among a short list of estates. Egon Müller-Scharzhof holds 8.3 hectares, the largest and best-placed share. Reichsgraf von Kesselstatt holds about 6.6 hectares and bottles Scharzhofberger from Kabinett to Grosses Gewächs. Weingut von Hövel in Oberemmel long farmed 2.8 hectares (per its importer Schatzi Wines); that estate ceased operations at the beginning of 2026. Van Volxem of Wiltingen bottles both a Scharzhofberger Grosses Gewächs and the separate Pergentsknopp parcel GG. The Bischöfliche Weingüter Trier hold parcels through the Hohe Domkirche estate, and the Vereinigte Hospitien of Trier also own a share.
What to Know
Do not confuse the Scharzhofberg with Scharzberg: Wiltinger Scharzberg is the Grosslage created under the 1971 wine law, a collective appellation whose grapes may come from vineyards across the Saar, and the two names are routinely confused. A bottle labeled Wiltinger Scharzberg has no necessary connection to this hill. The single site never carries a village name; the Grosslage always does.