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Culture

The Moselle Valley - Romance and Riesling

Suryo BuonoOctober 9, 2011

The last stretch of the Mosel River before it flows into the Rhine in Coblenz at the "German Corner" is through the Rhineland's Rhenish Slate Mountains, watering a picture-book landscape. Its silver-glittering band winds in picturesque loops through a green valley. To the right and left, villages cuddle along its riverbank, watched over by romantic castles and steep vineyard-covered slopes.

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Top-quality Riesling grapes thrive here. Even before the term "terroir" became fashionable among wine connoisseurs, the vintners here were aware of the importance of climate, location, and soil. The latter's mineral composition varies, so that wine tastes are strongly influenced by even small difference in location. The Romans brought wine cultivation to the Mosel more than 2000 years ago. In Trier, the Porta Nigra, a black, weathered, stone gate to the city, still testifies to the Roman-era. In the state museum, the grave of a Roman wine dealer shows that Mosel wine was already in demand in ancient times. Today visitors from all over the world come to the wine festivals here, especially in the autumn, to pay homage to Bacchus, the god of wine. In Piesport's "Roman wine-pressing festival", Bacchus makes a personal appearance every year.