The tour has been picking up pace from a relatively genteel start – culminating in what we might call Super Saturday.
The beautiful Mosel Valley was our destination and this is perhaps the most famous of all the German wine regions.
The scenery is stunning and the combination of perilously steep slopes, the devonian slate soil and incredibly fresh wines is quite beguiling.
Our first visit was to Weingut Axel Pauly. Winemaker and owner, Axel, took us for a walk and a drive through the vineyards which gave us a unique perspective into how arduous it is to tend these vineyards. Back at the winery we tasted through a great selection of his wines – clearly showing a purity and preciseness that is the Pauly hallmark.
A quick twenty minute hop later and we were in the historic village of Piesport and at the Lothar Kettern estate. Young winemaker Philipp is in charge and clearly has a vision to make some changes about how we perceive wines from the Mosel. We tasted a terrific selection outside on the terrace, overlooking the river and some of his vineyards in what was an idyllic setting. A delicious traditional Mosel lunch was served.
In a further twist, the Kettern estate are involved in a joint venture with the famous Niepoort family in Portugal – so it seemed appropriate to taste a couple of LBV Ports with Daniel Niepoort who just happened to be there as he has been working on a number of vintages with Philipp.
It was a fabulous occasion and we rounded it off with a quick walk through the famous Goldtropfchen vineyard before heading off to our final visit in Munster-Sarmsheim.
The journey was a little more arduous than we anticipated but we finally made it through some driving rain to the family estate of Kruger-Rumpf in the Nahe Valley.
After a quick tour around the winery we sat down for an elegant three course dinner accompanied by nine different wines – thus racking up at least 26 different wines during the day.
A big final day and yet a few managed to down a digestif or two watching the champion League’s final!