A masterful riesling
2008 Pechstein Forst Riesling, Grosses Gewächs, Reichsrat Von Buhl, Pfalz, Germany (£34.50, Harrods, 020-7730 1234).
It is the black basalt soil in this vineyard which gives these grand cru riesling vines their extraordinary complexity. I tasted the full range of von Buhl '08s the other day and they are a mightily impressive lot.
Pechstein was my pick of the bunch not least because the nose was so captivating that the world became a blur and I went temporarily mute and deaf as I waded knee deep in this glorious wine.
Riesling is the most expressive of white grapes and it has the ability to reduce me to a jabbering idiot when it is this good. With only 6g/l of residual sugar in this breathtaking creation, this is a bone dry riesling and it is this vitality and nervy edge of minerality, which follows the cavalcade of lime and blossom, which shocks the senses to attention.
This is a young wine and I am certain that it will age incrementally for well over a decade. Food wise, drink it with the finest sushi, impossibly tender fruits de mer or the most expensive manchego you can find. This is a staggeringly serious wine and it contains more beauty within its masterful core than any white I have tasted this year.
• Matthew Jukes is a winner of the International Wine & Spirit Competition's Communicator of the Year.
