Mosel (wine Region)
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Mosel () is one of 13
German wine regions German wine regions are classified according to the quality category of the wine grown therein: '' Tafelwein, Landwein, Qualitätswein bestimmter Anbaugebiete'' (QbA) and '' Prädikatswein''. The wine regions allowed to produce QbA and Prädikat ...
(''Weinbaugebiete'') for quality wines (''Qualitätswein'', formerly ''QbA'' and ''Prädikatswein''), and takes its name from the Mosel River (french: Moselle;
Luxembourgish Luxembourgish ( ; also ''Luxemburgish'', ''Luxembourgian'', ''Letzebu(e)rgesch''; Luxembourgish: ) is a West Germanic language that is spoken mainly in Luxembourg. About 400,000 people speak Luxembourgish worldwide. As a standard form of th ...
: ''Musel''). Before 1 August 2007 the region was called Mosel-Saar-Ruwer, but changed to a name that was considered more consumer-friendly. The wine region is
Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
's third largest in terms of production but some consider it the leading region in terms of international prestige.J. Robinson ''Jancis Robinson's Wine Course'' Third Edition, pp. 264-265. Abbeville Press 2003 . The region covers the valleys of the rivers Mosel,
Saar Saar or SAAR has several meanings: People Given name *Saar Boubacar (born 1951), Senegalese professional football player * Saar Ganor, Israeli archaeologist *Saar Klein (born 1967), American film editor Surname * Ain Saar (born 1968), Est ...
, and
Ruwer The Ruwer is a river in Germany with a length of . It is a right tributary of the Moselle. The valley of the Ruwer is a part of the Moselle wine-growing region near Trier in the state of Rhineland-Palatinate. It is famous for its Riesling wines ...
from near the mouth of the Mosel at
Koblenz Koblenz (; Moselle Franconian language, Moselle Franconian: ''Kowelenz''), spelled Coblenz before 1926, is a German city on the banks of the Rhine and the Moselle, a multi-nation tributary. Koblenz was established as a Roman Empire, Roman mili ...
and upstream to the vicinity of
Trier Trier ( , ; lb, Tréier ), formerly known in English as Trèves ( ;) and Triers (see also names in other languages), is a city on the banks of the Moselle in Germany. It lies in a valley between low vine-covered hills of red sandstone in the ...
in the federal state of
Rhineland-Palatinate Rhineland-Palatinate ( , ; german: link=no, Rheinland-Pfalz ; lb, Rheinland-Pfalz ; pfl, Rhoilond-Palz) is a western state of Germany. It covers and has about 4.05 million residents. It is the ninth largest and sixth most populous of the ...
. The area is known for the steep slopes of the region's vineyards overlooking the river. At 65 ° degrees incline, the steepest recorded vineyard in the world is the ''Calmont'' vineyard located on the Mosel and belonging to the village of
Bremm Bremm is an ''Ortsgemeinde'' – a Municipalities of Germany, municipality belonging to a ''Verbandsgemeinde'', a kind of collective municipality – in the Cochem-Zell Districts of Germany, district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It belongs to ...
, and therefore referred to as ''Bremmer Calmont''.K. MacNeil ''The Wine Bible'', pp. 532-535. Workman Publishing 2001 . The Mosel is mainly famous for its wines made from the
Riesling Riesling (, ; ) is a white grape variety that originated in the Rhine region. Riesling is an aromatic grape variety displaying flowery, almost perfumed, aromas as well as high acidity. It is used to make dry, semi-sweet, sweet, and sparkling wh ...
grape A grape is a fruit, botanically a berry, of the deciduous woody vines of the flowering plant genus ''Vitis''. Grapes are a non- climacteric type of fruit, generally occurring in clusters. The cultivation of grapes began perhaps 8,000 years ago, ...
, but
Elbling Elbling is a variety of white grape (sp. ''Vitis vinifera'') which today is primarily grown in the upstream parts of the Mosel region in Germany and in Luxembourg, where the river is called Moselle. The variety has a long history, and used t ...
and
Müller-Thurgau Müller-Thurgau is a white grape variety (sp. ''Vitis vinifera'') which was created by Hermann Müller from the Swiss Canton of Thurgau in 1882 at the Geisenheim Grape Breeding Institute in Germany. It is a crossing of Riesling with Madeleine ...
also contribute to the production, among others. In the past two decades red wine production, especially from the ''Spätburgunder'' ( Pinot noir), has increased in the Mosel and throughout the German vignoble and has become of increasing interest to the international wine community. Because of the northerly location of the Mosel, the Riesling wines are often light, tending to lower alcohol, crisp and high in
acidity In computer science, ACID ( atomicity, consistency, isolation, durability) is a set of properties of database transactions intended to guarantee data validity despite errors, power failures, and other mishaps. In the context of databases, a sequ ...
, and often exhibit "flowery" rather than or in addition to "fruity" aromas. Its most common vineyard soil is derived in the main from various kinds of slate deposits, which tend to give the wines a transparent, mineralic aspect, that often exhibit great depth of flavor. In the current era of climate change much work has been done to improve and gain acceptance for completely dry ("Trocken") Rieslings in this region, so that most of the more famous makers have found acceptance for such wines, particularly in Europe.


History

It is believed that
viticulture Viticulture (from the Latin word for ''vine'') or winegrowing (wine growing) is the cultivation and harvesting of grapes. It is a branch of the science of horticulture. While the native territory of ''Vitis vinifera'', the common grape vine, ran ...
was brought to this area by the
Romans Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy * Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...
who planted vineyards along the Mosel and the
Rhine ), Surselva, Graubünden, Switzerland , source1_coordinates= , source1_elevation = , source2 = Rein Posteriur/Hinterrhein , source2_location = Paradies Glacier, Graubünden, Switzerland , source2_coordinates= , so ...
in order to have a local source of wine for their
garrison A garrison (from the French ''garnison'', itself from the verb ''garnir'', "to equip") is any body of troops stationed in a particular location, originally to guard it. The term now often applies to certain facilities that constitute a mil ...
s. The cost of transporting wine up from the Italian Peninsula or across the
Vosges Mountains The Vosges ( , ; german: Vogesen ; Franconian and gsw, Vogese) are a range of low mountains in Eastern France, near its border with Germany. Together with the Palatine Forest to the north on the German side of the border, they form a single ...
and the Roman vineyards in
Gaul Gaul ( la, Gallia) was a region of Western Europe first described by the Romans. It was inhabited by Celtic and Aquitani tribes, encompassing present-day France, Belgium, Luxembourg, most of Switzerland, parts of Northern Italy (only during ...
was very high and impractical. The Romans considered creating a
canal Canals or artificial waterways are waterways or engineered channels built for drainage management (e.g. flood control and irrigation) or for conveyancing water transport vehicles (e.g. water taxi). They carry free, calm surface flow un ...
between the
Saône The Saône ( , ; frp, Sona; lat, Arar) is a river in eastern France. It is a right tributary of the Rhône, rising at Vioménil in the Vosges department and joining the Rhône in Lyon, at the southern end of the Presqu'île. The name ...
and the Rhine before ultimately deciding to plant vines in the area.
Trier Trier ( , ; lb, Tréier ), formerly known in English as Trèves ( ;) and Triers (see also names in other languages), is a city on the banks of the Moselle in Germany. It lies in a valley between low vine-covered hills of red sandstone in the ...
(founded 16 BC) was a major Roman outpost and it is likely that the first Mosel vineyards were planted in the surrounding hillsides sometime in the 2nd century. Viticulture was certainly flourishing in the area by the 4th century when the Roman poet
Ausonius Decimius Magnus Ausonius (; – c. 395) was a Roman poet and teacher of rhetoric from Burdigala in Aquitaine, modern Bordeaux, France. For a time he was tutor to the future emperor Gratian, who afterwards bestowed the consulship on him. H ...
wrote a poem about the beauty of the land at
harvest Harvesting is the process of gathering a ripe crop from the fields. Reaping is the cutting of grain or pulse for harvest, typically using a scythe, sickle, or reaper. On smaller farms with minimal mechanization, harvesting is the most labor-i ...
time.H. Johnson ''Vintage: The Story of Wine'' pp. 87–95, Simon and Schuster 1989 . The Mosel wine of the Roman period was described as light bodied and "austere". It was said to be an easier drinking wine than that of other Roman areas. In the winter time, the wine was heated in a kettle and drunk like a
tea Tea is an aromatic beverage prepared by pouring hot or boiling water over cured or fresh leaves of ''Camellia sinensis'', an evergreen shrub native to East Asia which probably originated in the borderlands of southwestern China and north ...
(a practice that still has some tradition among modern vineyard workers who drink it like
coffee Coffee is a drink prepared from roasted coffee beans. Darkly colored, bitter, and slightly acidic, coffee has a stimulant, stimulating effect on humans, primarily due to its caffeine content. It is the most popular hot drink in the world. S ...
, often with a little sugar added). In warmer
vintage Vintage, in winemaking, is the process of picking grapes and creating the finished product—wine (see Harvest (wine)). A vintage wine is one made from grapes that were all, or primarily, grown and harvested in a single specified year. In certa ...
s the wine was noticeably more fruity and
sweet Sweetness is a basic taste most commonly perceived when eating foods rich in sugars. Sweet tastes are generally regarded as pleasurable. In addition to sugars like sucrose, many other chemical compounds are sweet, including aldehydes, ketones ...
. This was because the warmth allowed the grapes to more fully ripen and develop more
sugars Sugar is the generic name for sweet-tasting, soluble carbohydrates, many of which are used in food. Simple sugars, also called monosaccharides, include glucose, fructose, and galactose. Compound sugars, also called disaccharides or double ...
. During the cold autumn the
fermentation Fermentation is a metabolic process that produces chemical changes in organic substrates through the action of enzymes. In biochemistry, it is narrowly defined as the extraction of energy from carbohydrates in the absence of oxygen. In food ...
process would not be fully complete because of the low temperature, thus leaving the wine with high levels of
residual sugar The subjective sweetness of a wine is determined by the interaction of several factors, including the amount of sugar in the wine, but also the relative levels of alcohol, acids, and tannins. Sugars and alcohol enhance a wine's sweetness, wh ...
s.H. Johnson ''Vintage: The Story of Wine'', pp. 113–118. Simon and Schuster 1989 . In the
Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...
, villages sprung up that were centered on the region's wine industry. These "wine villages", known as ''"Winzerdörfer"'', included paths from the town center up to the area's vineyards. At the center was a community
wine cellar A wine cellar is a storage room for wine in bottles or barrels, or more rarely in carboys, amphorae, or plastic containers. In an ''active'' wine cellar, important factors such as temperature and humidity are maintained by a climate control system. ...
where all the area's growers could store their wines. Probably most well known among the ''Winzerdörfer'' was the village of Bernkastel which was granted town rights in 1291. In 1435 when Count Johann IV of Katzenelnbogen planted
Riesling Riesling (, ; ) is a white grape variety that originated in the Rhine region. Riesling is an aromatic grape variety displaying flowery, almost perfumed, aromas as well as high acidity. It is used to make dry, semi-sweet, sweet, and sparkling wh ...
in the nearby town of Rüsselsheim the first time he owned vineyards in Winningen like ''the Destil'', in Burgen and Kochem one half of the city and many vineyards more along the Mosel. In order to create more suitable land for vineyards, vineyard owners in the 16th century used
explosives An explosive (or explosive material) is a reactive substance that contains a great amount of potential energy that can produce an explosion if released suddenly, usually accompanied by the production of light, heat, sound, and pressure. An expl ...
to break up the vertical spurs of rock along the rivers.J. Robinson (ed) ''"The Oxford Companion to Wine"'' Third Edition, pp. 456–458, Oxford University Press 2006 . Towards the end of the 17th century, the Mosel began to be identified more with wine made from the Riesling grape. The St. Maximin's Abbey in Trier owned 74 vineyards and by 1695 had over 100,000 Riesling vines. Today the vineyard of Maximin Grünhaus is considered one of the best Riesling vineyards in all of Germany. In the 18th century, the
Prince-elector The prince-electors (german: Kurfürst pl. , cz, Kurfiřt, la, Princeps Elector), or electors for short, were the members of the electoral college that elected the emperor of the Holy Roman Empire. From the 13th century onwards, the prince ...
of Trier,
Clemens Wenceslaus of Saxony Prince Clemens Wenceslaus of Saxony (German: ''Clemens Wenzeslaus August Hubertus Franz Xaver von Sachsen'') (28 September 1739 – 27 July 1812) was a Saxon prince from the House of Wettin and the Archbishop- Elector of Trier from 1768 until 18 ...
, mandated that over a seven-year period every vine in the Mosel area was to be Riesling only. The rise of the
House of Hanover The House of Hanover (german: Haus Hannover), whose members are known as Hanoverians, is a European royal house of German origin that ruled Hanover, Great Britain, and Ireland at various times during the 17th to 20th centuries. The house orig ...
in
Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It is ...
saw a period of increase exportation of "moselle wine" to England. However, the wine's high price kept the wines mostly in the hands of the Royal court and English nobility rather than replacing
claret Bordeaux wine ( oc, vin de Bordèu, french: vin de Bordeaux) is produced in the Bordeaux region of southwest France, around the city of Bordeaux, on the Garonne River. To the north of the city the Dordogne River joins the Garonne forming the ...
in the village taverns.H. Johnson ''Vintage: The Story of Wine'', pp. 288–296, Simon and Schuster 1989 . The 19th century saw an unprecedented era of prosperity for the Mosel wine industry under the rule of
Prussia Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an em ...
starting with the historic vintage of 1819. For the rest of the 1820s, there was a succession of outstanding weather and sterling wines produced. To promote the region's wine, the Prussian government lowered the
tariff A tariff is a tax imposed by the government of a country or by a supranational union on imports or exports of goods. Besides being a source of revenue for the government, import duties can also be a form of regulation of foreign trade and poli ...
s for the import of Mosel wines to other regions of the Prussian kingdom. The development of the
Zollverein The (), or German Customs Union, was a coalition of German states formed to manage tariffs and economic policies within their territories. Organized by the 1833 treaties, it formally started on 1 January 1834. However, its foundations had b ...
customs union even further benefited the Mosel by reducing the customs on their wines traveling to other regions of the
German Confederation The German Confederation (german: Deutscher Bund, ) was an association of 39 predominantly German-speaking sovereign states in Central Europe. It was created by the Congress of Vienna in 1815 as a replacement of the former Holy Roman Empire, w ...
. A string of bad weather vintages in the late 1830s and early 1840s would dampen the extent of prosperity that the Mosel would see.H. Johnson ''Vintage: The Story of Wine'' pp. 388–396, Simon and Schuster 1989 . By the 1850s, wine-makers in the Mosel had discovered the benefits of
chaptalization Chaptalization is the process of adding sugar to unfermented grape must in order to increase the alcohol content after fermentation. The technique is named after its developer, the French chemist Jean-Antoine-Claude Chaptal. This process is not in ...
in helping to compensate for bad weather vintages and under ripened grapes. Another significant boom came a couple decades later when the British Prime Minister
William Ewart Gladstone William Ewart Gladstone ( ; 29 December 1809 – 19 May 1898) was a British statesman and Liberal politician. In a career lasting over 60 years, he served for 12 years as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, spread over four non-conse ...
lowered the
duties A duty (from "due" meaning "that which is owing"; fro, deu, did, past participle of ''devoir''; la, debere, debitum, whence "debt") is a commitment or expectation to perform some action in general or if certain circumstances arise. A duty may ...
on light wine which opened up the British market to lower cost Mosel wines. This increased prosperity had the net effect of encouraging more quantity in production rather than quality. Many areas that were not ideal for Riesling were soon planted by the easier to grow Müller-Thurgau and other Riesling crossings. In the 20th century, a
North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...
n taste for sweet wines saw the prominence of
Liebfraumilch ''Liebfraumilch'' or ''Liebfrauenmilch'' (, in reference to the Virgin Mary) is a style of semi-sweet white German wine which may be produced, mostly for export, in the wine region, regions Rheinhessen (wine region), Rheinhessen, Palatinate (wine ...
and brands like
Blue Nun Blue Nun is a German wine brand launched by the company H. Sichel Söhne (Mainz) in 1923 with the 1921 vintage, and which between the 1950s and 1980s was a very popular international brand. For most of its existence, Blue Nun was a single Germ ...
dominate the German import wine market. In recent times, the Mosel (as well as the entire
German wine German wine is primarily produced in the west of Germany, along the river Rhine and its tributaries, with the oldest plantations going back to the Ancient Rome, Roman era. Approximately 60 percent of German wine is produced in the state of Rhine ...
industry) has dedicated itself to reversing the reputation it gained during these years and focus on the quality of the area's dry wines.


Climate and geography

The Mosel wine region has northernly
continental climate Continental climates often have a significant annual variation in temperature (warm summers and cold winters). They tend to occur in the middle latitudes (40 to 55 north), within large landmasses where prevailing winds blow overland bringing som ...
that is marked by cool temperatures. The best producing vineyard sites are located along the Mosel river and its tributary where the heat from the sun can be maximized by reflection up from the water. South & southwest facing slopes are even more sought after because of the increased exposure to direct sunlight that can aid in ripening of the grapes.C. Fallis, editor ''The Encyclopedic Atlas of Wine'' pp. 258-259, Global Book Publishing 2006 . The
soil Soil, also commonly referred to as earth or dirt, is a mixture of organic matter, minerals, gases, liquids, and organisms that together support life. Some scientific definitions distinguish ''dirt'' from ''soil'' by restricting the former te ...
of the area is dominated by
porous Porosity or void fraction is a measure of the void (i.e. "empty") spaces in a material, and is a fraction of the volume of voids over the total volume, between 0 and 1, or as a percentage between 0% and 100%. Strictly speaking, some tests measure ...
slate Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade regional metamorphism. It is the finest grained foliated metamorphic rock. ...
which has ideal drainage for the regions heavy rainfall and good heat retaining properties. Many of the best vineyards have no topsoil at all, just broken slate. During the summer months the weather is warm but rarely hot with July's average temperatures around . The Mosel river dominates the geography of the region which is typically divided into three main sections. The Upper Mosel is the southernmost section located closest to the river's origins along the French and
Luxembourg Luxembourg ( ; lb, Lëtzebuerg ; french: link=no, Luxembourg; german: link=no, Luxemburg), officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, ; french: link=no, Grand-Duché de Luxembourg ; german: link=no, Großherzogtum Luxemburg is a small lan ...
border. The region includes the Saar and Ruwer river tributaries and is centered on the city of Trier. The Middle Mosel or ''Mittelmosel'' is the main wine growing region and includes the villages of Bernkastel and
Piesport Piesport is an ''Ortsgemeinde'' – a municipality belonging to a ''Verbandsgemeinde'', a kind of collective municipality – in the Bernkastel-Wittlich district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. Geography Location The municipality lies sur ...
. The Middle Mosel begins at the village of
Zell Zell may refer to: Places Austria * Zell am See, in Salzburg state * Zell am Ziller, in Tyrol * Zell, Carinthia, in Carinthia * in Upper Austria: ** Bad Zell ** Zell am Moos ** Zell an der Pram ** Zell am Pettenfirst Germany * Zell im Fichtelg ...
and extends south to just north of the village of
Schweich Schweich is a town in the Trier-Saarburg district, in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is situated on the river Moselle, approx. northeast of Trier. Schweich is the seat of the ''Verbandsgemeinde'' ("collective municipality") Schweich an der R ...
. The slate-based soil here is said to have one of the most recognizable ''
terroir (, ; from ''terre'', "land") is a French term used to describe the environmental factors that affect a crop's phenotype, including unique environment contexts, farming practices and a crop's specific growth habitat. Collectively, these conte ...
'' with the wines, especially Riesling, displaying slatey mineral notes. The Lower Mosel includes the region south of the city of Koblenz to the village of Alf near Zell. It is the most northern wine region of the Mosel and includes the area's confluence with the Rhine river.


Viticulture

The steep river bank slopes that are scattered around the Mosel region are considered some of the most labor-intensive vineyards in the world.
Mechanical harvesting Mechanical may refer to: Machine * Machine (mechanical), a system of mechanisms that shape the actuator input to achieve a specific application of output forces and movement * Mechanical calculator, a device used to perform the basic operations of ...
is impractical and nearly seven times more
man hour A man-hour (sometimes referred to as person-hour) is the amount of work performed by the average worker in one hour. It is used for estimation of the total amount of uninterrupted labor required to perform a task. For example, researching and wr ...
s are needed in the Mosel than in flatter terrain such as the
Médoc The Médoc (; oc, label= Gascon, Medòc ) is a region of France, well known as a wine growing region, located in the ''département'' of Gironde, on the left bank of the Gironde estuary, north of Bordeaux. Its name comes from ''(Pagus) Medull ...
.
Grapevines ''Vitis'' (grapevine) is a genus of 79 accepted species of vining plants in the flowering plant family Vitaceae. The genus is made up of species predominantly from the Northern Hemisphere. It is economically important as the source of grapes, ...
are individually staked to the ground without connecting wires so that vineyard workers can tend the plants going horizontally across the vineyard rather than vertically, which would be more treacherous and tiring. Safety is a priority for many Mosel vineyard owners with the area having a documented history of fatalities among workers while tending the vines. A benefit of the steep Mosel vineyards is that the incline allows for more direct sunlight to have contact with the vines. During the winter, rain often causes some
soil erosion Soil erosion is the denudation or wearing away of the upper layer of soil. It is a form of soil degradation. This natural process is caused by the dynamic activity of erosive agents, that is, water, ice (glaciers), snow, air (wind), plants, and ...
, especially of the vital slate chips that are needed for their heat retaining properties. Many vineyards will gather these eroded
sediments Sediment is a naturally occurring material that is broken down by processes of weathering and erosion, and is subsequently transported by the action of wind, water, or ice or by the force of gravity acting on the particles. For example, sand a ...
and carry them back up the hillside. The Riesling grape, grown on 59.7% of the region's cultivated vineyard surface in 2008,German Wine Institute: German wine statistics 2009/2010
is widely considered the most prestigious and highest quality wine grape of the Mosel but it cannot be planted on every vineyard site due to difficulties the grape has in ripening in particularly cool climates. Factors such as
altitude Altitude or height (also sometimes known as depth) is a distance measurement, usually in the vertical or "up" direction, between a reference datum and a point or object. The exact definition and reference datum varies according to the context ...
,
aspect Aspect or Aspects may refer to: Entertainment * ''Aspect magazine'', a biannual DVD magazine showcasing new media art * Aspect Co., a Japanese video game company * Aspects (band), a hip hop group from Bristol, England * ''Aspects'' (Benny Carter ...
and
sunlight Sunlight is a portion of the electromagnetic radiation given off by the Sun, in particular infrared, visible, and ultraviolet light. On Earth, sunlight is scattered and filtered through Earth's atmosphere, and is obvious as daylight when t ...
exposure can have a pronounced effect not only one the resulting quality of the wine but also whether the Riesling grape will even ripen at all. A positive characteristic of the Riesling grape is that despite less than perfect ripeness it can still create a wine of finesse and elegance that would escape most other grape
varieties Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...
. In place of Riesling, the easier cultivated Müller-Thurgau grape (14.7%) and other Riesling crossings like Kerner (4.6%) were planted in large quantities on the sites that were not suitable for Riesling, and which in many cases had been previously used for other agricultural purposes. A negative consequence of these large-scale plantings is that the wine produced from these sites are typically of a lower quality than Riesling wines which in turn has a depressing economic effect on the prices of all Mosel wines. While consumers have benefited with top quality Riesling wines being underpriced in comparison with some of the world's other great wines from places like
Bordeaux Bordeaux ( , ; Gascon oc, Bordèu ; eu, Bordele; it, Bordò; es, Burdeos) is a port city on the river Garonne in the Gironde department, Southwestern France. It is the capital of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, as well as the prefectur ...
,
Burgundy Burgundy (; french: link=no, Bourgogne ) is a historical territory and former administrative region and province of east-central France. The province was once home to the Dukes of Burgundy from the early 11th until the late 15th century. The c ...
and
California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...
, the economic hardship created by the prices has caused some of the smaller Mosel vineyards to go out of business. In 2008, the Mosel vineyards covered , making it the fifth-largest of Germany's 13 wine regions. White grape varieties cover 91 percent of the region's total vineyard surface. The trend in total vineyard area has until recently been slightly negative over a longer period of time, down from in 1988 to in 2003 and to in 2006. It is primarily lesser sites previously planted with "low quality" varieties that have been abandoned in this process; during the 20-year period from 1988 to 2008, plantings of Müller-Thurgau decreased by 55% and those of Elbling by 49%. However, in 2007 and 2008, the negative trend in total plantations has been broken, and the Mosel vineyard surface has seen a small increase of in two years. The projected Mosel High Bridge will cross and affect some of the most famous vineyards prompting international wine critics and oenologists to oppose its construction.


Wine region

Within the Mosel region, there are the following six districts (''Bereiche'') and 19 collective vineyard designations (''Großlagen''), plus 524 single vineyard (''Einzellagen'') designations. Four of the six districts are situated on the river Mosel, and one each on rivers Saar and Ruwer. *District Burg
Cochem Cochem is the seat of and the biggest town in the Cochem-Zell district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. With just over 5,000 inhabitants, Cochem falls just behind Kusel, in the Kusel district, as Germany's second smallest district seat. Since 7 J ...
/ more commonly known as Untermosel or Terrassenmosel The Cochem district is home to some of the steepest vineyards in the Mosel planted on soil composed of blue
devonian The Devonian ( ) is a geologic period and system of the Paleozoic era, spanning 60.3 million years from the end of the Silurian, million years ago (Mya), to the beginning of the Carboniferous, Mya. It is named after Devon, England, whe ...
slate, red slate and
quartzite Quartzite is a hard, non- foliated metamorphic rock which was originally pure quartz sandstone.Essentials of Geology, 3rd Edition, Stephen Marshak, p 182 Sandstone is converted into quartzite through heating and pressure usually related to tect ...
. Many of the vineyards of the lower Mosel are terraced, which has led many producers to adopt the name Terrassenmosel, which sounds nicer than Untermosel in German. This district produces a higher proportion of dry wines than the rest of the region. A well known vineyard from this area is the ''Juffermauer'' located near
Treis-Karden Treis-Karden is an '' Ortsgemeinde'' – a municipality belonging to a ''Verbandsgemeinde'', a kind of collective municipality – in the Cochem-Zell district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It was the seat of the former like-named ''Verba ...
, whose name means "Virgin-Wall" in the local Franconian dialect/language.K. MacNeil ''The Wine Bible'' p. 517, Workman Publishing 2001 . *District Bernkastel / more commonly known as Mittelmosel This is the central district of the region. One of the most notable vineyards in this area is known as ''Doctorberg'', and its wines as ''Bernkasteler Doctor''. An
apocryphal Apocrypha are works, usually written, of unknown authorship or of doubtful origin. The word ''apocryphal'' (ἀπόκρυφος) was first applied to writings which were kept secret because they were the vehicles of esoteric knowledge considered ...
story of how the vineyard got its name originated in the late
Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...
when a local
archbishop In Christian denominations, an archbishop is a bishop of higher rank or office. In most cases, such as the Catholic Church, there are many archbishops who either have jurisdiction over an ecclesiastical province in addition to their own archdi ...
was miraculously cured of a
terminal illness Terminal illness or end-stage disease is a disease that cannot be cured or adequately treated and is expected to result in the death of the patient. This term is more commonly used for progressive diseases such as cancer, dementia or advanced he ...
by drinking wine made from the grapes of this vineyard.K. MacNeil ''The Wine Bible'' p. 512, Workman Publishing 2001 . Other notable vineyards of the Mittelmosel include the
Sundial A sundial is a horological device that tells the time of day (referred to as civil time in modern usage) when direct sunlight shines by the apparent position of the Sun in the sky. In the narrowest sense of the word, it consists of a flat ...
(German ''Sonnenuhr'') vineyards; Brauneberg Juffer-Sonnenuhr, Wehlener Sonnenuhr, Zeltinger Sonnenuhr. In the 19th century, large sundials were built in these vineyards so that the workers would know what time to break for lunch or the end of the work day. Since these vineyards receive the most exposure to the sun, many of the wines produced from these vineyards are richer and more full-bodied than wine produced from other vineyards. In a similar way to many of Burgundy's Grand Cru vineyards, the Sonnenuhr vineyards are highly parceled with multiple owners of individual plots or rows of vines. The Wehlener Sonnenuhr vineyard alone has more than 200 owners. *District Ruwertal / more commonly known as Ruwer (its formal name is due to the fact that Ruwer also is a suburb of Trier. The Ruwer is an estuary that flows into the Mosel; "Tal" is German for valley.) Located to the southeast of Trier, this region includes the vineyards around Waldrach and
Kasel Kasel is a municipality in the Trier-Saarburg district, in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after R ...
. The region is home to many monopole (wine), monopole vineyards. At Mertesdorf, there is a wiktionary:subterranean, subterranean Roman aqueduct that connects the Grünhaus vineyard with the city of Trier. The quality of Ruwer wine is particularly dependent on the quality of the vintage with cool vintages marked by sharply acidic wines that quickly fade and warmer vintage producing some of the most delicate and perfumed expressions of German wines.H. Johnson & J. Robinson ''The World Atlas of Wine'' pp. 216-223, Mitchell Beazley Publishing 2005 . *District Saar Like the Ruwer region, wine from the Saar district (along the lower course of the Saar River, in
Rhineland-Palatinate Rhineland-Palatinate ( , ; german: link=no, Rheinland-Pfalz ; lb, Rheinland-Pfalz ; pfl, Rhoilond-Palz) is a western state of Germany. It covers and has about 4.05 million residents. It is the ninth largest and sixth most populous of the ...
) is particularly dependent on the overall quality of the vintage typically only 4 years out of every 10 producing a worthwhile set of wines. The wines that do come out of these warm vintages are noted for their apple-like freshness and steely mineral notes. The most ideal vintages allow harvest to take place between late October and mid November when the grapes can develop enough sugar to produce floral and honeyed notes. *District Obermosel This wine district is composed of a thin strip of land along the Luxembourg border. The region starts just north of Igel and continues south to the village of Palzem where it meets the Moseltor district. Elbling, Müller-Thurgau, and Auxerrois Blanc are some of the region largest plantings. Obermosel and Moseltor contain very few notable vineyards compared to the other districts of the region. *District Moseltor The Moseltor area is the most southern area of the Mosel region, and is located together with the Obermosel along the Luxembourg border. The Elbling grape is the most commonly planted here producing a thin, rustic wine with high acidity. Sparkling wine production is growing in this area. The reason why tiny Moseltor with its around of vineyards is a separate ''Bereich'' is that it, in contrast to the other 99% of Mosel's vineyard area, is located in the state of Saarland, and therefore is supervised by this state's government. All of Moseltor is located within the borders of Perl, Germany, Perl.


Wines

The wines of the Upper Mosel, especially along the Saar and Ruwer tributaries, are characterized by their low alcohol content in the 6-9% range with intense fruity notes and high acidity. An obscure local poet once described them as 'Sonnenfeuer, Sternengold, Kühlen Mondlichtschein' - The fire of the Sun, the gold of the stars, and cool moonlight. The wines of the Middle Mosel are considered the most complete examples of German wines with some of the finest examples being able to age gracefully for 50–100 years. Mosel Rieslings rely on a strong presence of tartaric acid to balance the grape's sugar and to help impart its fruity notes. A characteristic of all Mosel wines is their normally high acidity and transparency (wine), transparency of clearly defined flavors. The wines of the Mosel region are traditionally packaged in a long green colored "hock style" wine bottle. Historically the green color distinguished Mosel wines from the brown bottles of the Rheinhessen (wine region), Rheinhessen. Plantings of
Müller-Thurgau Müller-Thurgau is a white grape variety (sp. ''Vitis vinifera'') which was created by Hermann Müller from the Swiss Canton of Thurgau in 1882 at the Geisenheim Grape Breeding Institute in Germany. It is a crossing of Riesling with Madeleine ...
accounts for more the 20% of the Mosel wine production and is typically used for basic quaffing wine or sweet wine. The Elbing grape accounts for a little more than 9% of the area's production and is often used as a low-cost riesling alternative in the production of sparkling Sekt. The Mosel is also well known for its Eiswein production with the area's characteristic high acidity coupled with the sweetness produced by the concentration of the sugars in the frozen grapes.


Grape varieties

The most cultivated grape varieties, by area in 2008, were:


Associations

There are two major wine growers' associations in the Mosel region, the ''Großer Ring'', which is a regional section of the Verband Deutscher Prädikats- und Qualitätsweingüter, VDP, and the ''Bernkasteler Ring''. They both arrange annual German wine auctions, wine auctions of top wines. Producers can submit their wines to the VDP for taste testing to qualify as reserve wines known as ''Erste Lage'' (meaning first site). These wines are subject to several regulations; for example, the harvesting must be by hand and the yield must not exceed 220 case (goods), cases per acre (50 hectolitre, hl/hectare, ha).T. Stevenson ''"The Sotheby's Wine Encyclopedia"'' p. 347, Dorling Kindersley 2005 .


References


External links


Mosel-Saar-Ruwer
Link no longer active.
Mosel-Saar-Ruwer
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mosel (wine region) Wine regions of Germany Moselle, Wine