Everything about Mosel Wine totally explained
Mosel is one of 13
German wine regions (
Weinbaugebiete) for
quality wines (QbA and Prädikatswein), and takes its name from the
Moselle River . Before
1 August 2007 the region was called
Mosel-Saar-Ruwer, but changed to a name that was considered more consumer-friendly name. The wine region is
Germany's third largest in terms of production but is the leading region in terms of international prestige. The region covers the valleys of the rivers Moselle,
Saar, and
Ruwer near
Koblenz and
Trier in the federal state of
Rhineland-Palatinate. 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, and therefore referred to as
Bremmer Calmont. The Mosel is mainly famous for its wines made from the
Riesling grape, but
Elbling and
Müller-Thurgau also contributes to the production. Because of the northerly location of Mosel, the Riesling wines are often light, low in
alcohol,
crisp and high in
acidity, and often exhibit "flowery" rather than "fruity" aromas.
History
It is believed that
viticulture was brought to this area by the
Romans who planted vineyards along the Mosel and the
Rhine in order to have a local source of wine for their
garrisons. The cost of transporting wine up from the
Italian Peninsula or across the
Vosges Mountains and the Roman vineyards in
Gaul was very high and impractical. The Romans considered creating a
canal between the
Saône and the Rhine before ultimately deciding to plant vines in the area. Trier was a major Roman outpost and it 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 wrote a poem about the beauty of the land at
harvest time.
The Mosel wine of the Roman period was described as light bodied and "austere". It was said to be an easier drinking wine that of other Roman areas. In the winter time, the wine was heated in a kettle and drank like a
tea (a practice that still has some tradition among modern vineyard workers who drink it like
coffee often with a little sugar added). In warmer
vintages the wine was noticeably more fruity and
sweet. This was because the warmth allowed the grapes to more fully ripen and develop more sugars. During the cold autumn the
fermentation process wouldn't fully complete because of the low temperature thus leaving the wine with high levels of
residual sugars.
In the
Middle Ages, villages sprung up that were centered around the region's wine industry. These "wine villages" were known as
"Winzerdorfs" included paths from the town center up to the area's vineyards. At the center was a community
wine cellar where all the area's growers could store their wines. One of the most well known Winzerdorf was the village of Bernkastel which was granted town rights in 1291.in the nearby
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 to break up the vertical
spurs of rock along the rivers.
Towards the end of the 17th century, the Mosel began to identify 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 vines to the Riesling vine. 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 of Trier,
Clemens Wenceslaus of Saxony, mandated that over a seven-year period every vine in the Mosel area was to Riesling only. The rise of the
House of Hanover in
Great Britain 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 in the village taverns.
The 19th century saw an unprecedented era of prosperity for the Mosel wine industry under the rule of
Prussia 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
tariffs for the import of Mosel wines to other regions of the Prussian kingdom. The development of the
Zollverein customs union even further benefited the Mosel by reducing the customs on their wines traveling to other regions of the
German Confederation. A string of bad weather vintages in the late 1830s and early 1840s would damper the extent of prosperity that the Mosel would see.
By the 1850s, winemakers in the Mosel had discovered the benefits of
chaptalization in helping to compensate for bad weather vintages and under ripen grapes. Another significant boon came a couple decades later when the British Prime Minister
William Gladstone lowered the
duties 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 grown Müller-Thurgau and other Riesling crossings. In the 20th century, a
North American taste for sweet wines saw the prominence of
Liebfraumilch and brands like
Blue Nun dominate the German import wine market. In recent times, the Mosel (as well as the entire
German wine industry) has dedicated itself to reversing the reputation it gained during these years and focus on the quality of the area's dry wines. The
soil of the area is dominated by
porous slate which has ideal drainage for the regions heavy rainfall and good heat retaining properties., is widely considered the most prestigious and highest quality wine grape of the Mosel but it can not be planted on every vineyard site due to difficulties the grape has in ripening in particularly cool climates. Factors such as
altitude,
aspect and
sunlight exposure can have a pronounced affect not only one the resulting quality of the wine but also whether or not the Riesling grape will even ripen at all. A positive characteristic of the Riesling grape is that despite less the perfect ripeness it can still create a wine of finesse and elegance that would escape most other grape
varieties., and it's primarily lesser sites previously planted with "low quality" varieties that are being abandoned. White grape varieties cover 91 percent of the region's vineyard surface.
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 Moselle, and one each on rivers Saar and Ruwer.
- District Burg Cochem / more commonly known as Untermosel or Terrassenmosel
The Cochem district is home to the some of the steepest vineyards in the Mosel planted on soil composed of blue devonian slate, red slate and quartzite.
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 story of how the vineyard got its name originated in the late Middle Ages when a local archbishop was miraculously cured of a terminal illness by drinking wine made from the grapes of this vineyard.
Other notable vineyards of the Mittelmosel include the sundial (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 Saar
Like the Ruwer region, wine from the Saar district (along the lower course of the Saar River, in Rhineland-Palatinate) 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 allows harvest to take place between late October and mid November where the grapes can develop enough sugar to produce floral and honeyed notes.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Mosel Wine'.
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