I'm sitting here with a glass of this extraordinary Chardonnay in my hand and I really want to communicate its qualities to you as accurately as possible, but it feels like trying to describe algebra with a trumpet. It has flavours that are extremely difficult to pin down with words, and if I list a bunch of flavour impressions (grapefruit, popcorn, yuzu, peanut shell, curry leaf and dried flowers), it will sound more like a dish from Heston Blumenthal's tasting menu than a wine.

All I can say is that it's as beautiful as it is profound. It's ever-so-minutely spritzy on opening (a deliberate technique to reduce the need for sulphur), but that quickly dissipates and leaves you in the company of a Grand Cru wine, as opulent as it is keen, at moments almost sour, yet sappy and succulent too; a very 'Burgundian' style of German Chardonnay, flinty and exciting and the sort of wine that will leave an impression on you long after the last drop has left the bottle. I was emboldened to see that one of my favourite independent wine stores in New York, Leon & Son, described it as "quite simply one of the best Chardonnays I’ve ever had from Germany." 13% alc. Aged in barriques. Drink now-2028

Carsten Saalwächter: "Since we neither fine nor filter the wines, it can always happen that a wine has some CO2 when opened, but this does not make the quality of the wine worse. Always give our wines some time and you are welcome to drink them over a few days - our wines need a lot of air and time."