Germany 3, Rest of the World 0

A funny thing happened at the Riesling Master Tasting I was asked to host at Vinitaly a week ago. It taught me a valuable lesson.

Because of my long championing of the great German grape, I had been asked by the late Peter Duff to put my name to a Riesling Trophy in the annual International Wine & Spirit Competition. The IWSC and Vinitaly put their heads together and came up with the idea of my conducting a tasting of some favourite and representative Rieslings from around the world at the famous annual wine fair in Verona.

I sent...