Mosel Flashcards
When did Mossel-Saar-Ruwer get divided?
August 1, 2007
What bottle feature is commonly encountered on Auslese bottlings in Mosel?
Goldkapsel-a gold-colored capsule.
What are the six bereiche of Mosel?
—Bernkastel (largest, most of the Mosel’s greatest gemeinden and einzellagen are located; holds 2/3 of the Mosel’s vineyard area.)
—Burg Cochem “CO-hem” (often referred to as Terrassenmosel or Lower Mosel)
—Saar
—Ruwertal
—Obermosel (Upper Mosel)
—Moseltor (covers a scant handful of vines in the Saarland, near Obermosel.)
What is the largest bereiche in the Mosel?
Bernkastel (occupying a stretch of the Mosel from Trier to Zell)
What is the soil found in Mosel?
Dark Blue Devonian slate, although red slate characterizes the vineyards near Erden.
Why is blue slate perfect for cultivation in the Mosel?
Blue slate retains heat and the river reflects warmth onto the vines, allowing them to ripe in a region where the annual average temp is 49° F—8° colder than the grapevine’s ideal annual temperature.
What are the two main tributaries of the Mosel River?
Saar and Ruwer
Who overtook Mosel for Europe’s largest cultivator of Riesling? When?
Pfalz in the mid-2000’s
What two ranges does the Mosel river flow through?
Hunsrück hills and the Eifel Mountains
What anbaugebiet has the earliest evidence of winegrowing in Germany? When?
The Mosel. Imported by the Romans viticulture first prospered at the end of the 3rd century CE, after Probus lifted the imperial prohibition on winegrowing in Rome’s provinces.
How was the Mosel style of Kabinet Riesling born?
Mosel began a tradition of producing lightly sweet, low-alcohol Riesling wines in the 19th century. Before the advent of sterile filtration, this could only be accomplished with a heavy dose of sulfur, and with it, the Mosel style of Kabinett Riesling was born, offering a clear alternative to the heavier dry styles of the Rheingau and elsewhere.
How long is the Mosel river? Where does the river stretch?
545 kilometers (338 miles). The longest tributary of the Rhine River.
It begins in the Vosges Mountains in France, home of Moselle AOP, and forms Luxembourg’s border with Germany. It then carves a winding path for more than 200 kilometers (124 miles) through Germany to the city of Koblenz, where it converges with the Rhine.
What parallel is the Mosel on?
50th parallel. One of the coolest climates for winegrowing.
What climatic influences affect the ability to grow wine in Mosel? (5)
- the moderating effect of the river
- the orientation of the vineyard
- aspect of the vineyard
- altitude
- exposure to wind
What is the growing season and annual average temperature of the Mosel?
10° C (50° F), and the typical growing season is compressed to about 100 days. (Global warming notwithstanding)
-tweaks and amplifications of climate can extend that by 40-50 days at best.
Where are the warmest vineyards in the Mosel located?
South and Southwest facing slopes along the Mosel River itself where sunlight and temperature are magnified, and such slopes produce the best wines.
How does soil color and composition play a role in ripening the vines in the Mosel?
The thin, sandy topsoil of the Mosel is typically covered with tiles of broken slate, carried up the slopes and strewn about the vineyards, to collect heat and prevent erosion of the soil beneath. The soil’s trademark element, Devonian slate, helps to defuse nighttime lows and limit diurnal variation by releasing heat stored throughout the day into the canopy. Devonian slate is found in both dark blue and red variations; the effect is intensified with dark-colored slate, the more common variation. The broken, weathered soil also affords excellent drainage.
What is the trademark soil in the Mosel? What are the two types? List three ways it helps ripening?
Devonian slate (Dark Blue and red variations)
- helps to defuse nighttime lows and limit diurnal variation by releasing heat stored throughout the day into the canopy.
- the broken, weathered soil also affords excellent drainage.
- the soils have also served to limit the incursion of phylloxera. The bug is present, but it cannot thrive, leaving a few pockets of centurion vines in the valley
Without such dry, well-drained, heat-retaining soils, ripening would be delayed.
Bernkastel major villages (10)
Erden Ürzig Zeltingen Wehlen Graach Bernkastel-Kues Brauneberg Piesport Trittenheim Leiwen
Grosslage of Mosel
Burg Cochem: Weinhex, Goldbäumchen, Grafschaft, Rosenhang, Schwarze Katz
Bernkastel: Vom heissen Stein, Schwarzlay, Nacktarsch, Münzlay, Kurfürstenlay, Michelsberg, St. Michael, Badstube (widely used even by the most quality-conscious among growers, because they incorporate solely high-quality sites.), Propstberg, Römerlay
Ruwertal: Grosslagenfrei, Römerlay
Saar: Scharzberg
Moseltor: Schloss Bübingen
Obermosel: Gipfel, Königsberg
In Bernkastel name some of the most reowned Riesling sites
- Bernkasteler Doctor
- Piesporter Goldtröpfchen
- Erdener Prälat
- Graacher Himmelreich
- Ürziger Würzgarten
- the famous sundial (Sonnenuhr) vineyards of Wehlen and Zeltingen.
What has diminished the reputation (and price) of Bernkastel wines?
Common Grosslagen bottlings like Piesporter Michelsberg or lesser single vineyard wines.
Name benchmark (4) and recent upstart (3) producers based in Bernkastel
Benchmark: Joh. Jos. Prüm, Reinhold Haart, Reichsgraf von Kesselstatt, and Dr. Loosen
Upstarts: Ansgar Clüsserath, Daniel Vollenweider, and Clemens-Busch
What is Burg Cochem also known as? What is the stretch of Burg Cochem?
Terrassenmosel/Lower Mosel.
Stretches from Zell northward through Cochem to Koblenz.
Burg Cochem major villages
Winningen Kobern-Gondorf Hatzenport Cochem Bremm Zell
What is the best winegrowing region out of Burg Cochem and who is the star producer and his premier vineyard site?
The village of Winningen, home to Heymann-Löwenstein and the premier vineyard site Uhlen.
What is the Obermosel also known as?
Where is the stretch?
The Upper Mosel
On the right bank of the Mosel River from south of Trier to the French border. (The left bank is in Luxembourg.)
What is the main variety found in the Obermosel?
Elbling, an ancient white grape variety that produces simple, fruity whites and refreshing sparkling wines.
Where is the Ruwer tributary?
Connected to the Middle Mosel between Trier and Trittenheim.
What is the church’s historical connection to viticulture in Ruwer?
Benedictine St. Maximin monastery, so important to medieval viticulture in the Mosel, based its winemaking operations here, at (Maximin) Grünhaus, as early as the 900s. The estate, still in operation and now owned by the von Schubert family, is an Ortsteil and one of the Ruwer’s best wine producers.
Name two of the best estates in Ruwertal.
Von Schubert’s orsteil Maximin Grünhauser in Mertesdorf
Karthäuserhof in Eitelsbach
Both monopoles
How is the Maximin Grünhaus estate divided?
Three separate, but contiguous vineyards
Abtsberg
Herrenberg
Bruderberg
The estate was run by Benedictine monks until the late 18th century. The names worked out as a sort of classification, with the Bruderberg wines (the smallest and lesser of the sites) historically going to the monks, the Herrenberg to the Abbey’s choirmasters and the Abtsberg for the abbots.
Ruwertal major villages
Ruwer Eitelsbach Mertesdorf Kasel Waldrach Avelsbach
Where is Saar?
South of Trier on the banks of the Saar River.
Major villages of the Saar
Serrig Saarburg Wiltingen Ockfen Oberemmel Kanzem
Why is the Saar one of the coolest areas of the Mosel?
Most vineyards do not line the river, so lack a more moderating influence.
What are the best vineyards in the Saar? (4)
- Saarburger Rausch (southfacing) (Zilleken best known producer)
- Hörecker and Altenberg on the Saar River in Kanzem
- the legendary Scharzhofberg in Wiltingen. (Egon Müller)
What is the most famous site in the Mosel? Who is the most lauded producer of this site?
Scharzhofberg in Wiltingen. Egon Müller is its most lauded producer.
What is the soil found in Moseltor?
Limestone , as opposed to slate in the rest of the Mosel.
What is the soil of the Obermosel?
This sector of the Mosel sits, with Chablis and Champagne, within the Paris Basin, atop a calcareous limestone soil makeup that replaces the Devonian slate of the Middle and Lower Mosel.
What are the three “sundial” vineyards in the Mosel? Which producers are exemplified by these vineyards?
Brauneberg Juffer-Sonnenuhr (Fritz Haag) Wehlener Sonnenuhr (JJ Prum and Dr. Loosen) Zeltinger Sonnenuhr (JJ Prum and Selbach Oster)
-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. 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.
What is Piesport’s greatest vineyard? Name two producers making wine from this vineyard.
Goldtröpfchen “droplets of gold”. A natural amphitheater, provides excellent terroir for Riesling and is one of the Mosel’s most pedigreed sites. Immortalized in the wines of producers such as Reinhold Haart and Reichsgraff von Kesselstatt.
What famous vineyard can be found in Bernkastel-Kues?
Doctor vineyard, reputedly the source of a miraculously curative wine in the 14th century.
Who owns Josephshöfer in Graach?
Reichsgraff von Kesselstatt
Important einzellage in the village of Trittenheim?
Apotheke
