Wirsching Silvaner trocken 2016 Franken

From €6.80, $13.99, £12.75 

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The other weekend we opened a bottle of Hans Wirsching Iphöfer Julius-Echter-Berg Silvaner Grosses Gewächs 2012, and it reminded me just how unexpectedly brilliant this grape is in the right place and in the right hands. It rarely gets any attention, despite a history of having been, at one point, the most important and widely planted white variety in Germany. I once described it as ‘a librarian with a thick plait and glasses who turns out to be a rock musician in her spare time’.

I was partly wrong in that assessment. It’s...