We took a plane to Frankfurt am Maine and rented a car to go visit the Mosel Valley. Riesling from Mosel has long been among my favorite wines. And stories and pictures of the Mosel Valley spoke of green, hilly landscape, fairytale towns and small wine producers and vineyards in every town. The towns and landscapes we experienced exceeded all of my expectations. I loved every minute of our ride along the flowing river. We traveled the valley for three days, and chose to stay the night in Koblenz, Cochem and Bernkastel.
One of our favorite vineyards was found in the small town of Ernst, just south of Cochem. There we were told the history of the Mosel valley. How people have been growing wine up the steep hills for hundred sof years. No one producer owns any larger area, and for that reason most vineyards only produce a small amount of bottles per year. Most never reaching above 20 000 and therefore choosing to sell everything locally at their shops and in nearby restaurants. Everything is handpicked by the owners. This year the harvest was excepted to October. We also learned the difference between the quality of the wines. Qualitätswein is made from grapes harvested after 100 days, while grapes for Prädikatswein is picked after 150 days, giving it a more complex taste. Eiswine is harvested after the grapes have started to overripe in the end of the season, when water has started leaving the fruit, giving it a much sweeter and stronger taste.
The first couple of days the temperature was around 35 C. Thankfully, we found several places to bathe along the Mosel.
We spent the second night in Cochem, a town filled with restaurants, bars and small shops.
Bernkastel turned out to be a fairytale village. In fact, we even ended up staying at a fairytale themed hotel, being placed in the Cinderella room literally fit for a princess in every way and filled with children’s books and pictures from the stories. I can really recommend Maerchen Hotel. And Bernkastel. It was absolutely beautiful.
