Moselle wine is produced in three countries along the river Moselle:

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

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 ...

(the Musel) and

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 ...

(the Mosel). Moselle wines are mainly white and are made in some of the coldest climates used for commercial winemaking.

France

In France, in

Lorraine Lorraine , also , , ; Lorrain: ''Louréne''; Lorraine Franconian: ''Lottringe''; german: Lothringen ; lb, Loutrengen; nl, Lotharingen is a cultural and historical region in Northeastern France, now located in the administrative region of Gra ...

around the city of

Metz Metz ( , , lat, Divodurum Mediomatricorum, then ) is a city in northeast France located at the confluence of the Moselle and the Seille rivers. Metz is the prefecture of the Moselle department and the seat of the parliament of the Grand ...

, about 1500 hectoliters of wine annually is produced as AOC Moselle. These wines together with Côtes de Toul make up the 200 hectares of "wines of the east" (''vins de l'Est''). The most commonly grown grape varieties are Auxerrois Blanc and Müller-Thurgau, and the other allowed varieties are

Gamay Gamay is a purple-colored grape variety used to make red wines, most notably grown in Beaujolais and in the Loire Valley around Tours. Its full name is Gamay Noir à Jus Blanc. It is a very old cultivar, mentioned as long ago as the 15th centu ...

Gewürztraminer Gewürztraminer () is an aromatic wine grape variety, used in white wines, and performs best in cooler climates. In English, it is sometimes referred to colloquially as Gewürz (; although this is never the case in German, because "Gewürz" me ...

, Meunier, Pinot noir,

Pinot blanc Pinot blanc is a white wine grape. It is a point genetic mutation of Pinot noir. Pinot noir is genetically unstable and will occasionally experience a point mutation in which a vine bears all black fruit except for one cane which produces white ...

Pinot gris Pinot Gris, Pinot Grigio (, ) or Grauburgunder is a white wine grape variety of the species ''Vitis vinifera''. Thought to be a mutant clone of the Pinot Noir variety, it normally has a grayish-blue fruit, accounting for its name, but the gra ...

and

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 ...

. Previously, the name "Vins de Moselle" was used, between 1995 and 2010 the official name was VDQS Moselle. As the area under vine is very small, these wines are seldom seen on the export market.

Luxembourg

In southeastern Luxembourg, along the country's 42 km river border with Germany, 1 290 hectares of vines are used to produce wine under the designation '' Appellation Contrôlée Moselle Luxembourgeoise''. Common varieties and their proportion of vineyard area in 2002 are Müller-Thurgau (usually under the name Rivaner) at 31.4%, Auxerrois blanc (13.1%), Riesling (12.9%), Pinot gris (12.7%),

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 ...

(10.9%), Pinot blanc (10.5%), Pinot noir (6.2%), Gewürztraminer (1.1%) and Chardonnay (0.9%).Wine-Pages: Tom Stevenson on Luxembourg
Rivaner and Elbling are on the decline, and while Riesling is usually considered the premier variety wherever it is grown, in Luxembourg Auxerrois tends to be considered as the most successful variety. Luxembourg wines in general have been described as lighter-style Alsace wine but are not very often encountered outside Luxembourg and neighbouring

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...

as the most of the production tends to be consumed by the Luxembourgers themselves. Sparkling wine ( Crémant de Luxembourg) makes up a significant portion of the production, but is a designation within AC Moselle Luxembourgeoise rather than a separate appellation, which is usually the case with French Crémants.

Germany

Mosel is one of 13 German wine-growing regions (''Anbaugebiete'') for quality wines, with 9 080 hectares under vine in 2005, and one of the most well-known. The region also includes vineyards situated on the Saar and Ruwer rivers. The main varieties are Riesling (57.7% in 2005), Müller-Thurgau (15.0%), Elbling (6.6%) and Kerner (4.9%). High-quality Mosel wine is synonymous with Riesling, and most of the Elbling ends up in non-varietally labelled

Sekt Sparkling wine is a wine with significant levels of carbon dioxide in it, making it fizzy. While the phrase commonly refers to champagne, European Union countries legally reserve that term for products exclusively produced in the Champagne regi ...

(sparkling wine).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Moselle Wine Wine regions of France Wine regions of Germany French wine AOCs