2017 Höllenpfad im Muhlenberg Riesling, Grosses Gewachs, Dönnhoff

The Nahe River flows north into the Rhine at Bingen at the western end of the Rheingau. The best wines from the Nahe have been described as having the elegance of the Rheingau, the body of a Rheinhessen and the acidity of a Mosel.

There are several outstanding producers in the area, with the most celebrated being Helmut Dönnhoff.

He produces some of Germany's finest Riesling wines from the world-famous Niedehausen and Schlossböckelheim vineyards, as well as from the less well known Norbeim and Oberhausen vineyards.

His Kabinett and Spätlese wines are exceptionally racy wines that are rich with complex and intense mineral overtones. They are delicious when young but have the potential to improve for up to 10 years, with the top wines lasting even longer.

Riesling's twin peaks are its intense perfume and its piercing crisp acidity which it manages to retain even at high ripeness levels.

In Germany, Riesling constitutes around 20% of total plantings, yet it is responsible for all its greatest wines. It is planted widely on well-drained, south-facing slate-rich slopes, with the greatest wines coming from the best slopes in the best villages. It produces delicate, racy, nervy and stylish wines that cover a wide spectrum of flavours from steely and bone dry with beautifully scented fruits of apples,apricots, and sometimes peaches, through to the exotically sweet flavours of the great sweet wines.

It is also an important variety in Alsace where it produces slightly earthier, weightier and fuller wines than in Germany. The dry Rieslings can be austere and steely with hints of honey while the Vendages Tardives and Sélection de Grains Nobles are some of the greatest sweet wines in the world.

It is thanks to the New World that Riesling is enjoying a marked renaissance. In Australia the grape has developed a formidable reputation, delivering lime-sherbet fireworks amid the continental climate of Clare Valley an hour's drive north of Adelaide, while Barossa's Eden Valley is cooler still, producing restrained stony lime examples from the elevated granitic landscape; Tasmania is fast becoming their third Riesling mine, combining cool temperatures with high UV levels to deliver stunning prototypes.

New Zealand shares a similar climate, with Riesling and Pinot Gris neck to neck in their bid to be the next big thing after Sauvignon Blanc; perfectly suited is the South Island's Central Otago, with its granitic soils and continental climate, and the pebbly Brightwater area near Nelson. While Australia's Rieslings tend to be full-bodied & dry, the Kiwis are more inclined to be lighter bodied, more ethereal and sometimes off-dry; Alsace plays Mosel if you like.