Mosel museum: Old vintages from Staffelter Hof

Jan gingerly prises the cork out of the 1971 Eiswein

I admit to a bit of a thrill when the cork's popped on a properly ancient bottle of wine. The sense of expectation is palpable - will the cork make it out in one piece, is the liquid even still drinkable?

At this year's ProWein, Weingut Staffelter Hof's Jan Matthias Klein treated a few friends and fellow wine geeks to a brace of old vintages from 1993 all the way back to 1971. It's a real treat to taste bottles like these - Wines that have a story to tell, that can transmit history and culture, far beyond the liquid in the bottle.

And not only that - they tasted damn good too! I won't pretend I liked everything - but all the wines were still very much alive and kicking, with impressive freshness and vitality given their advanced years. Propensity to such impressive ageing is of course something of a Mosel Riesling trademark.

My favourite was the 1975 Riesling Beerenauslese, still generous and sweet, yet amazingly complex and resinous. …