Mosel

The Rhineland-Palatinate viticulture service (DLR) dates the first archaeological evidence of vine-growing on the Mosel to the 2nd century AD, from Roman grave monuments; the best known, the Neumagen wine ship, is from the first half of the 3rd century. Viticulture peaked once Trier became an imperial residence in 293, and the oldest Roman press houses found, at Piesport, Brauneberg and Erden, are from the 4th and 5th centuries. In 371 Ausonius described the vine-covered slopes in his poem Mosella. Around 1000 the abbey of St. Maximin held the largest vineyard estate.

A decree of 1787 by Clemens Wenzeslaus, last Elector of Trier, required poor vines to be replaced, and in the 1790s many vineyards were replanted with Riesling. The Trier estate owners' association co-founded the forerunner of the VDP in 1910. A ban on red grapes in force since 1933 ended in 1986. The vineyard grew from 7,500 ha in the late 1950s to 12,300 ha in the early 1990s and has shrunk since, as steep sites were abandoned.

The specification divides the region, from south-west to north-east, into the Upper Mosel (Perl to Konz), the Trier valley widening (Konz to Schweich), the Middle Mosel (Schweich to Moselkern) and the lower valley (Moselkern to Koblenz), together with the Saar and Ruwer. Down to Schweich the river winds through the soft Mesozoic rocks of the Trier embayment: Buntsandstein, with Muschelkalk and Keuper only on the Upper Mosel. Below, it meanders in a narrow V-shaped valley cut into the Devonian rocks of the Rhenish Slate Mountains, where quartzitic sandstones, quartzites and slates dominate. The German Wine Institute adds sandy, gravelly soils on the flat sites.

Vineyards lie at about 65–375 m, 180 m on average; half face south-east to south-west, and the mean exposure is 195°. The mean temperature is 9.7 °C, or 14.1 °C in the growing season, and 760 mm of rain falls, 60% of it in the growing season. The institute says half the vineyards are on steep or terraced sites of more than 30 degrees and names the Bremmer Calmont as the steepest vineyard in Europe.

The specification credits the varied weathered soils with the character of Mosel wine: varietal, intense fruit and ripeness aromas, from vegetal through fruity, spicy and floral to honeyed and exotic notes in the noble-sweet wines, and a delicate to full-bodied palate with fine acidity and natural minerality. It links quality to the small plots and steep slopes, which limit mechanisation and demand intensive hand work, and to the long growing season. The German Wine Institute adds that the slate slopes store the day's heat and release it at night, that the roots go deep for water, and that the wines combine depth of flavour with relatively low alcohol.

Mosel has been protected in the EU since 1973 and covers Qualitätswein, Prädikatswein, Sekt b.A. and Qualitätsperlwein b.A.; Classic and Weißherbst are among the terms it lists. The 2011 technical file sets, for the Rhineland-Palatinate vineyards, minimum must weights for Qualitätswein of 55° Oechsle for Riesling and Elbling, 58° for Müller-Thurgau and 68° for Dornfelder. Kabinett needs 73° (70° for Elbling), Spätlese 80° and Auslese 88° for Elbling, Müller-Thurgau and Riesling, Beerenauslese and Eiswein 110° and Trockenbeerenauslese 150°. Prädikatswein may not be enriched, sweetening is allowed only with grape must, and the maximum yield is 125 hl/ha.

In 2022 Riesling covered 62.4% of the area, followed by Müller-Thurgau (9%), Elbling and Pinot Noir (5% each) and Pinot Blanc (4.3%). The German Wine Institute says Elbling may have been grown on the Upper Mosel for 2,000 years. The six districts are Burg Cochem, Bernkastel, Obermosel, Moseltor (in Saarland), Saar and Ruwertal.