Karthäuserhof has been making wines for an astonishingly long time. In fact, it was founded in 1335 by Carthusian monks who were gifted the estate by a local member of the clergy. The monks operated it as a winery until the estate was secularised in the early 1800s and taken over by the Leonardy family in 1811 whose descendants still operate the property today.

Now, German wine terms have a habit of being confusing, but here's a little layperson's glossary of terms relating to this particular wine:

Auslese: This relates to the ripeness of the grapes at the time of harvest, which in turn relates to the sugar content of the grapes at the time of harvest. There is a bit of glossing over at this point, but in this case this leads to a luscious and sweet wine with racing acidity to balance it out.

VDP: This is the Verband Deutscher Prädikatsweingüter - a voluntary organisation of premium grapegrowers that categorises vineyards into tiers not unlike what is done in Burgundy.

Grosse Lage: This is a term reserved for the best of the best. The vineyards that consistently produce extremely high quality grapes. The Burgundian equivalent would be "Grand Cru".

So now that you're an expert, Karthäuserhof is a VDP member and this wine is made from extremely ripened (Auslese) Riesling grapes from their own Karthäuserhofberg - one of the region's top vineyards.

What does that mean for what's in the glass you ask?

Expect a luscious, dense and deep mix of pineapple, mango, apricot, passionfruit, lime, a smattering of spices, and even a hint of herbaceousness. A phenomenally complex wine that will benefit from many years of aging. Likely even decades.

Australian wine drinkers often shy away from any mention of sugar, or relegate it to the confines of dessert, but this wine makes a perfect accompaniment to spicy and fragrant Thai or Vietnamese food, or more traditionally a juicy pork sausage covered in paprika with a side of bratkartoffeln.