Weingut Schnaitmann, Simonroth Spätburgunder 2015

Württemberg is not the first name that comes to mind when someone says 'great German Pinot Noir', but Rainer Schnaitmann has spent two decades dismantling that prejudice. His Simonroth vineyard, in the Remstal hills east of Stuttgart, produces a Spätburgunder that would hold its head up in any Burgundy tasting — not because it imitates Burgundy, but because it doesn't need to. The 2015 has had a decade to find itself, and what it's found is impressive: a wine of precision and restraint, with the kind of cool, earthy character that comes from soils with real personality. In the glass, expect red cherry and dried rose underpinned by something mineral and almost saline, with tannins that are silky rather than grippy.