Tasting April 2024 in the Mosel Valley

WINE TALK
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I will be a week in the Mosel Valley in April. I graduated from the German Wine Academy in 1984 with Dr. Hans Ambrosi and Dr. Helmut Becker (Geisenheim) as instructors. I was in Nahe and south last year for a week, but haven’t been to the Mosel in 40 years. I love all wine and have an excellent background. I’ve been a wine judge in the US, France and Canada. I taste about 1500 unique wines per year, and probably 70+ of them are Rieslings. I’m WSET 3 with Distinction, for whatever that’s worth.

I’m looking for truly personal experiences with visits to Mosel wineries. I’m familiar with most of the big names, and many of the smaller Vom Boden names. I’m looking for personal introductions to excellent estates, where I will converse and taste with the owner or winemaker. I’m not that interested in Hospitality staff. I’m hoping for indepth wine conversation.
My traveling partner, who was a Somm at a Wine Spectator Award of Excellence restaurant, are in the Mosel from Wine, Wine and Wine.

Who has good connections and is open to referring?

Also looking where to stay, in two different ways.
One way is where along the river to stay. We will be exploring wineries from the Saar to possibly the Terrasen Mosel. We will have a car, but don’t want to lose too much time to driving since we hope to visit indepth 2 or even 3 wineries per day. We are looking for a 2 bedroom quite pleasant place.

Bernkastel area is centrally located, but is quite touristy, but also has restaurant choices for dinner. Could possibly stay closer to Trier to have more restaurant choices, but then the beautiful vertiginous Lower Mosel is getting far away (?)

What we would really love is to find a nice 2 bedroom at a quality winery, where we could get to know the vigneron (excuse my French :grin:) over the week’s stay. That would be IDEAL!!

We Live, Eat and Breathe German wine, especially the Mosel.
Please, who has personal connections that could make this into a perfect German wine trip. :heart:

Robert “Bobby” Frank
Michigan

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Look into Clüsserath-Weiler Gästehaus und Weingut I Trittenheim:

https://cluesserath-weiler-gaestehaus.de/

Family owned and operated. She is the winemaker and he is the chef.

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The past two years when visiting the Mosel I have stayed at the guest house at Dr Loosen. The prices are very fair. It’s in Bernkastel but outside the village. all the rooms have either a river view or view of the Weinberg (Bernkasteler Lay). It’s also a very easy walk into Bernkastel for restaurants and shops. His relatively new GG Reserve program is really interesting and the wines are fantastic. Another plus is that he is the US importer of Fritz Haag, Von Schubert and of course Dr Loosen.

And Zilliken, Weil, and Wittmann.

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William, had potential for us, but, unfortunately, no room at the inn.

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May be a bit too commercial lodging for us, though I will consider it. Just had the 83 Zilliken Saarburger Rausch Auslese a couple weeks ago. In great shape with no gray hairs. Still fresh!

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Just to clarify, when you say Mosel are you referring to Mosel-Saar-Ruwer? I assume you mean just the Mosel? You can easily fill up a week with the Mosel. I would recommend that you visit the upper, middle and lower. I don’t know of any homes connected to wineries; although, I am sure they are out there. I would suggest a central location with good restaurants like Traben-Trarbach is more important. There a lots of airbnb options. And I highly recommend the restaurant Die Mosel.

Also I would say 99% of the time I have visited wineries in the Mosel I have tasted with the owner / winemaker. A couple of times a winemaker was on holiday and had an assistant taste with us. There are very few hospitality types in the Mosel.

I will come back with specific wineries suggestions once I know if you are going to spend the entire week in the Mosel.

The Mosel Fine Wine vistor’s guide is also very helpful:

You have my contact info so feel free to hit me up offline.

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Also in Trittenheim, Ansgar Clüsserath has its new, stylish Moselhaus. The wines are very good and all fermented and aged in traditional Moselfuder.

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On the Saar, WEINhotel Ayler Kupp is another option. It’s part of the Peter Lauer estate in Ayl.

In preparation for your upcoming visit to the Mosel Valley, I could recommend the book Mosel Wine.

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Lars, thank you so much for your assistance. We need a 2 bedroom unit. And even though we will be visiting the Saar, of course, we will also be visiting wine estates in the Mittel Mosel and the Terrasen Mosel, so we need a more central location and would prefer not having to drive through Trier most days.
I was invited by Patrick Rauber to the Saturday night, January 13 small dinner group in Chicago and was very excited to attend to meet you and David Schildknecht. Very sadly, the 5 hour drive (in good weather) was too much in the blizzard that hit Michigan and even the train from Ann Arbor to Chicago was cancelled. :cry: So I missed the fantastic Sunday extensive Hofgut Falkenstein get-together.
However, I will definitely visit to taste, learn and explore at Hofgut Falkenstein in mid-April. One of my favorite wineries!

Thank you again for taking your time to try to assist me.
I have spent decades learning about the Mosel and will continue doing so. That is why we are visiting there, life and wine are about always learning. Just look at the constant editing necessary for your book.

Hope to see you in mid-April!!
Robert Bobby Frank

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My pleasure, Bobby. As Robert pointed out, Traben-Trarbach would be an ideal location for your visit. You would be in the Mittelmosel and closer to the Terrassenmosel. Besides Die Mosel, you also have Jugendstilhotel Bellevue, plus several top producers in the town: Weiser-Künstler, Vollenweider, and Martin Müllen, among others.

The vertical tasting of Mutter Anna was on Sunday, too. I’m sorry you missed the charity event.

Ha! A reader from Riga caught an error on page 4 in the intro the other day. No one noticed that it should be “almost 18 liters in milk.”

Looking forward to seeing you at Hofgut Falkenstein in mid-April.

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@Lars_Carlberg - I was very pleasantly surprised, that Amazon has your book stocked in Australia!

We often have to wait a long time for shipping (for example with Ian D’Agatas recent’ish Barolo book) so look forward to having it in my impatient hands shortly.

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Thanks! Our UK publisher also has print facilities through partners in the United States and Australia.

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Robert (Dentice),
We actually WILL be covering the M-S-R, not just the Mosel River.
I know quite a bit about the region, though certainly not near as much as you know.
Of course, I will trust your recommendations.
I plan on visiting a mix of different types of estates.

I would like to visit Willi Schäfer, though I’m not sure if his passing will make that difficult. I have very much enjoyed their wines. Also plan on visiting Hofgut Falkenstein, Weiser-Künstler, Martin Müllen and another 15 or so. Famous names I’d enjoy visiting include JJPrum, Markus Molitor, Fritz Haag but also interested in the newer wave you and Stephen love.

Any personal references from you are greatly appreciated!!
When I visit with a vigneron, of course I am interested in tasting the wines. However, I’m most interested in them, their story, why they create wine as they do. What makes them unique.
Thanks Robert, any introductions from you are special to me.
Hope to see you again in Detroit sooner rather than later.

Bobby Frank

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Robert,
And I’d love to visit Ludes, Stein and Julian Hart.
I know, now I’m being just plain greedy. But why not, don’t know when I’ll be back to the M-S-R.
Bobby Frank