Clean Slate

The western shore of the Mosel River, a busy tributary of the Rhine, are steeply banked sedimetary walls covered with a deep layer of blue and red slates. It is this slate, its southern aspect, quick drainage and the temperature moderating influence of the river, that makes the Mosel the top region for Riesling in the world. The other shore, flat and cooler, is also planted to within an inch of its life, but the grapes there don't rate anything more then good dry table wines. The king of the Mosel Riesling is the auslese, the late-picked grapes that have started to shrivel a bit, and may have some botrytis - a 'noble' rot - to add to the depth of flavor and concentration.

There is a story that has been passed down that in the olden times, the Prussian rulers would send word to the Mosel winegrowers when they deemed the time was right to harvest each year. One year, they sent their messenger out to alert the waiting farmers, but the horserider got sidetracked along the way by a few pints of good German beer. Long story short, by the time the farmers got the word to pick, the grapes had half rotted on the vine. They had no choice but to try and make wine from the ruined fruit - with now legendary results. The Spätlese Rider story may not be all true, but the history has held. The wine that results from these late-picked grapes is deep gold in color, low in alcohol, and the best have a perfect balance of sweetness and acidity that stays in your mouth long after the last swallow. Even if you don't like sweet wine, you've got to try this stuff.

Weingut Dr. Loosen owns blocks in some of the best Mosel vineyards, including the Ürziger Würzgarten (Ürzig Spicegarden), Erdener Prälat (Bishop of Erden) and Erdener Treppchen (Little Steps of Erden). These sites were deemed 'Grand Cru' in a Prussian survey of the 1860s (even before the Burgundy ranking), and although the Germans don't use a vineyard rating system, there is a movement underfoot to do so. Every ledge and crag of this land is planted to Riesling. The vines are doppelbogen (double bow, like a heart shape) pruned with no trellis and have grown for over 70 years on their own roots. (Phylloxera, a devastating root disease, cannot survive in the slate.) Our vineyard manager, Roland Orthmann, watches over them and runs a hard-working crew of Poles who do the back-breaking work of picking these hard-won grapes. I was volunteered to strap on one of the green fiberglass funnel-shaped backpacks that the strongest men wear to carry the harvested clusters down from to steep hillside. Scrambling for my footing on the loose slate, holding onto vine posts for support, I collected the carefully culled fruit and gingerly made my way down to trucks waiting at the bottom where I had to up-end the carrier over my shoulder into a big bin. It was no easy feat, and only later, when the pickers stopped laughing and pointing at me, was I told that my backpack had been only half-filled.

So, props to the mountain goat strength and balance of the men and women who nurse the Mosel vines. Because it still all boils down to the fruit. The best wines come from the best grapes. And our Keller Meister Berni Schug would be the first to agree (if you caught him in a good mood). He has been making world-class wines from these vineyards for over 20 years, using basically the same cellar techniques the whole time. It's not invasive nor manipulative of the juice. Sometimes it even borders on lax, but the eventual goal emerges every time, the true expression of these most unique of vineyards.