The steep slopes of Mosel

From a bird’s-eye view the Mosel river resembles a ribbon that fell out of a long braid and into the grass – that’s how many zigzags the river makes on its way. If you were to set sail upon it, you’d need to hold the steering wheel firmly and negotiate the corners well. On these riverbanks lies the most famous wine region in Germany – Mosel, well-known for its balanced and mineral Rieslings.

The vineyards are also situated by Mosel’s tributaries – the Saar and the Ruwer. In fact, the region used to be called Mosel-Saar-Ruwer, but starting from 2007 the name was changed to the shorter one – Mosel. Well, it’s much easier for wine connoisseurs to remember!

Nowadays the Mosel region is formed by a narrow strip of land on both shores – from the borders with France and Luxembourg in the south-west to the river’s confluence with the Rhine near the city of Koblenz.

The history of winemaking here, like with many other Europe’s regions, had Roman influence. According to the annals, the first vineyards were planted alongside the Mosel and the city of Trier somewhere around the second century B.C.

Thanks to the river’s constant winding nature, each slope gets a different amount of sun rays which directly influences the grapes’ qualities. With the cooler continental climate prevalent in the region the vineyards planted on the southern and south-western slopes end up having a trump card. Thus the quality of wine depends very much on the position of the vineyard it came from. The proximity to water is another plus, as the sun reflects off the surface and gives more warmth and energy to the grape clusters, while also softening temperature drops. The slopes are literally peppered with pieces of dark slate (just like Paris roofs, by the way!) that warms up during the day and radiates the heat back to the vines at night. This is North! Every hour that the vineyards spend under the sun matters.

The soil, the sun, the river and the wonderful grape come together in Mosel to create an unforgettable wine dream. But there’s another important fact that we have yet to mention. A giant amount of work on the vineyards is needed for us to enjoy a glass of cool molten gold.

The Mosel slopes are the steepest in the whole of Germany. Some of them reach an incline of 65-70 degrees! They are very hard to work on – you can’t even walk on them without a prop, nevermind cultivating the land and cutting the vines.

Thus there’s no way to use machines here. Almost everything here is done by hand and the labour requires about seven times as much time as on the flatter slopes. During winter the pieces of slate are washed down by the rain, and every spring they need to be brought back by hand. Considering such harsh conditions and obvious difficulties with the ripening of grapes, the prices for wonderful Mosel Riesling are amazingly low. If we were to compare it with white Burgundy which we love very much, we could say that you’ll pay 3-4 times less for a good Riesling from Mosel than for good Burgundy.

On the lots where the soils, the sun and the vintner’s handicraft join forces to create a single work of art, you get aromatic, mineral wines with a wonderful balance of acidity and fruitiness. They are fabulously nice and easy to drink thanks to that harmony. While the current winemakers’ fathers created sweet wines for the most part, now the majority of Rieslings, even the late vintages, are dry, with no residual sugar.

We dearly love the Mosel wines and really recommend you taste them. Of course, not every single wine from this region deserves the highest praise, but you can start with the ones produced by the Fritz Haag domain or Marcus Molitor. It’s especially lovely to drink them right on the spot, in Mosel, watching over the vines and castles in the distance – beaded, like a necklace, onto the blue river’s bends.

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