Anyone keen to buy 2007s but less than enthusiastic about bordeaux should think seriously about Germany’s exceptional 2007 vintage. Europe’s weird weather pattern last summer may have made life difficult for vintners growing red wine grapes on the Atlantic coast but played nicely into the hands of those growing Riesling on the banks of the Mosel and Rhine.

The key was the extraordinarily warm April that speeded up the vines’ development so much that the flowering was a full three or four weeks earlier than anyone had ever known, in May. If the summer had been hot this would simply have moved the entire process forward so that some fairly rapidly-ripened grapes would have been picked earlier than usual.