The Sohm & Kracher Chardonnay St Georg 2022 is a rich, textural white from Burgenland, grown on the limestone and slate of the Leithaberg at Sankt Georgen. Sohm & Kracher found a few rows of Chardonnay interplanted in a vineyard bought for Grüner Veltliner, and the wine that resulted has real weight without turning heavy.

Aromatically it leans toward white peach, nashi pear and grapefruit pith, with a savoury, faintly yeasty edge and a chalky mineral lift underneath. The palate is broad and creamy through the middle, carrying stone fruit and lemon curd across a frame that stays firm rather than soft.

Structure comes from a fine seam of acidity that runs the length of the wine and keeps the 14% alcohol in check. Texture is the point here — a slightly waxy, mouth-coating feel that dries out on the close, leaving saline, almond-skin length. Burgenland's warm, early-ripening 2022 season shows in the depth of fruit, though the cooler mid-slope site has held the line on freshness.

Serve it with roast chicken and bread sauce, a tranche of Murray cod in brown butter, veal schnitzel with lemon, or a wedge of aged Comté. Pull it from the fridge fifteen minutes before pouring, and don't be shy about decanting.

Drinking well from now through to around 2030, with the concentration and acid line to reward a few years in the cellar.