Mosel Field Trip April '26

Slate, Slopes and Riesling

Some trips you just know you will be talking about for years, and this was definitely one of them. In April, 23 of us packed our bags and set off for the Mosel: three days of steep slopes, slate soils and more Riesling than we could have ever hoped for. Here is how it went.

Day 1 – Weingüter Wegeler

Our trip began on Thursday morning, when 23 of our members set off from Munich. After around five hours on the road, we arrived at two o’clock in Bernkastel-Kues, a small, historic town in the heart of the Mosel wine region, and our home for the days ahead. Once everyone had checked in, we were eager to get ourselves the first glass of wine! And of course, we opted for a Riesling Kabinett. What better way is there to start a trip than sipping a refreshing, slightly sweet Riesling with beautiful weather and a great view?

In the afternoon, we walked to our first destination, Weingüter Wegeler. Located only a few minutes by foot from the hotel, which was especially welcome after the long drive. Herwig Hacker, sales manager for both their Rheingau and Mosel estates, welcomed us at the winery and walked us around the site. We followed the whole path of the wine: from the moment the grapes come in after harvest, through pressing and vinification, all the way to bottling and storage, until the bottles finally make their way to us consumers.

After this insightful tour, it was time to taste! From dry wines through slightly sweet Kabinett all the way to the even sweeter Spätlese, we got a lovely cross-section of what they have to offer. This is what we tasted:

My personal favourite here was the 2016 Bernkasteler Doctor Riesling Spätlese. Dried Apricots, figs, caramell, vanilla and a slight hint of herbaciousness, together with an almost buttery mouthfeel and yet, such an animating acidity, made this wine especially stood out amongst the ones we were going to taste on the days to come. It was not only the wine in the glass that made it stand out, though, as the vineyard itself is genuinely famous. Back in 1900, when top Mosel Rieslings could command more than twice the price of a Romanée-Conti from Burgundy or a Château Lafite from Bordeaux, Julius Wegeler had the rare opportunity to buy a small parcel of this exceptional site. He paid 100 Goldmark per vine, a price that made the vineyard even more legendary, and to this day the Bernkasteler Doctor remains the most expensive vineyard in Germany. No vineyard transaction has ever matched it since.

2025 Schiefer Riesling dry
2025 Mosel Riesling semi-dry
2024 Bernkasteler Riesling dry
2023 Wehlener Sonnenuhr Riesling GG dry
2024 Bernkasteler Riesling Kabinett
2016 Bernkasteler Doctor Riesling Spätlese
2005 Bernkasteler Graben Riesling Auslese

It was not only the wine in the glass that made it stand out, though, as the vineyard itself is genuinely famous. Back in 1900, when top Mosel Rieslings could command more than twice the price of a Romanée-Conti from Burgundy or a Château Lafite from Bordeaux, Julius Wegeler had the rare opportunity to buy a small parcel of this exceptional site. He paid 100 Goldmark per vine, a price that made the vineyard even more legendary, and to this day the Bernkasteler Doctor remains the most expensive vineyard in Germany. No vineyard transaction has ever matched it since.

The extensive history, the maturity of the wine (though by Riesling standards it is still a child) and its flavour all made it stand out. The only sad part: you can’t find it on the market…

Day 2 – Willi Schäfer & Dr. Loosen

After an already exciting first day, we somehow managed to ramp things up even further. The morning began with a walk along the Mosel from Bernkastel-Kues to a small village called Graach, where we had the exclusive opportunity to visit a very special winery: Willi Schaefer.

Andrea Schaefer and her son welcomed us, and we walked through the village and first had a stop at another winery that happened to be bottling its newest vintage that very day. We got a sample of Mosel Riesling right there. Drinking a wine that had just been bottled in front of our eyes, no label and no capsule, standing right next to the vineyard was absolutely incredible. After that first sip of the day, we walked up the street into the Graacher Domprobst vineyard, where Ms. Schaefer showed us some of their vines. A few of them are more than 100 years old! Standing at the foot of that steep, sloping site, smelling the air and seeing the slate soil for the first time after having tried these wines so many times, was a divine experience. Holding the slate in your hand you could genuinely feel the warmth radiating from its core, still warm from the sun a day before. This is where you finally witness with your own eyes what the word terroir really means, and why it matters so much.

Then, of course, it was time to taste. Most of our members had never heard of this winery, which makes complete sense, since Willi Schaefer farms only around five hectares and produces somewhere between 17,000 and 40,000 bottles depending on the year. Exclusive and hard to get hold of, but worth every penny. Here are the wines that made our members fall in love with Willi Schaefer:

2011 Graacher Himmelreich Riesling Spätlese
2025 Graacher Himmelreich Riesling Kabinett
2025 Graacher Domprobst Riesling Kabinett
2025 Graacher Domprobst Riesling Spätlese
2025 Graacher Himmelreich Riesling Spätlese
2019 Wehlener Sonnenuhr Riesling Auslese

It is hard to single out one wine, since every one of them was memorable, but if I had to, having stood in the vineyard just minutes earlier made the Graacher Domprobst Rieslings especially stick out. The fact that the 2025s had not even been bottled at the time of our visit, and were basically tapped straight from the barrel the day before, only added to it. Pretty incredible stuff, a safe-buy if you ever get the chance.

After lunch, we made our way back towards Bernkastel-Kues, stopping along the way at another world-famous winery: Dr. Loosen. Here we tasted:

2024 Blauschiefer Riesling
2024 Graacher Riesling
2023 Wehlener Sonnenuhr GG Alte Reben
2023 Ürziger Würzgarten GG Alte Reben
2021 Graacher Himmelreich Riesling TRADITION

A pretty decent line-up. Honestly, though, compared with the other estates we visited, these wines just could not quite keep up with what we had already tasted and especially with what was still waiting for us the next day.

Day 3 — Markus Molitor, Trier and Van Volxem

Our last day was, fittingly, the grand finale. We started at Markus Molitor, one of the Mosel’s most ambitious and acclaimed producers, known for an enormous range of wines spanning the Mosel, Saar and Ruwer. Anyone who has held a Molitor bottle knows his distinctive labels: the colour of the capsule signals the style, from dry (whity) all the way to sweet (gold), while the one to three stars mark the quality and concentration of the selection.

The tasting matched that ambition. We worked our way through reds, dry Rieslings, off-dry Rieslings and sweet Rieslings, finishing with an absolutely stunning Trockenbeerenauslese. If you wonder what the */**/*** mean, this is their way to tell the drinker about the level of care and effort that was put into differentiating the grapes when picking them at harvest, hinting at the quality level of the final wine. Post-fermentation by-barrel selection is also made here, meaning that is a *** barrel is not to Markus’s taste, he will downgrade it to a ** or even *. This is what was poured for us:

Reds

2020 Pinot Noir Einstern*
2015 Pinot Noir Brauneberger Klostergarten***

Dry Riesling

2022 Schiefersteil
2020 Saarburger Rausch Spätlese
2020 Zeltinger Sonnenuhr Spätlese
2017 Kinheimer Hubertuslay Auslese***

Off-Dry Riesling

2020 Ockfener Bockstein Kabinett
2003 Zeltinger Sonnenuhr Auslese**

Sweet Riesling

2022 Ürziger Würzgarten Kabinett
2006 Bernkasteler Graben TBA

To be honest, all these wines were incredible. From the incredible concentration in the dry Auslese, to an off-dry Auslese that was more than 20 years old, it was hard to pick out a favourite. Howevery, the 2006 Bernkasteler Graben TBA just was something truly special. I might be a bit biased since this wine is from the year I was born, but here is what made it stand out for me: Bein a TBA (trockenbeerenauslese), this wine is made from 100% botrytised grapes. The sugar content is so high, that fermentation is done out of the cellar (it would be too cold in their normal cellar) and still takes sometimes up to 2 years to ferment. It end up at a crazy 6,5% of alcohol. On the nose, there was honey, toffey, apricot marmelade and a hint of toasted almonds. Now, the palatte was just out of this world. The sher comlexity of this wine, paired with its elegance the crazy concentration, the sirup-like texutre…it truly left me speechless. What a crazy experience!

From there we headed to Trier for a couple of hours. As the oldest city in Germany, founded by the Romans, it was the perfect place to stretch our legs between tastings and a humble reminder that wine has been part of this valley’s story for a very, very long time.

The finale of the trip was a tasting at Van Volxem, over on the Saar. The estate has built its reputation on reviving the great historic vineyard sites of the region, and the line-up they put in front of us was generous, to say the least. There were quite a lot of wines, and it was a fitting way to round off three days in Riesling country.

NV Tradition Sekt Brut
2024 VV Rosé
2024 Weißburgunder
2024 VV Riesling
2024 Alte Reben
2024 Goldberg
2024 Maximiner Herrenberg
2023 Geisbock
2023 Geisberg
2023 Goldberg

These, however, are not the only wines we got a taste of. In the course of 3 intense hours of tasting and learning about the exiting history of the Mosel wines, Roman Niewodniczanski – the owner – pulled one exciting bottle after the other out of the cellar. This way, we had the opportunity to taste the same wine with 10-15 years apart, which really showed how gracefully these wines can age! We couldn’t have imagined a better way to end these three amazing days.

The End of the Road

And with that, our Mosel field trip came to an end. Three days, five wineries, one unforgettable region and a renewed appreciation for just how special the steep, slate slopes of the Mosel really are. If there is one thing to take away, it is this: nothing teaches you about wine quite like standing in the vineyard it came from. Until the next trip!

Cheers!

Mosel Field Trip April ’26