Of Vines and Vindication: Discovering German Wine with Evelina in the Moselle Valley

A personal journey through Cochem, the Moselle, and the surprising brilliance of German Riesling.

We hurried through the wood panelled rooms of the Hotel Villa Vie, with barely any time to notice the incredible views of the broad, blue river and the steep hills lined with terraces of green vineyards climbing up from it's banks, just behind the windows. We were following Evelina, a short but very glamourous German woman in her late 50s, with a shock of cherry-red hair that fell neatly to her shoulders. She was clearly dressed to entertain in the hot weather the Moselle Valley was experiencing in June, in a white linen summer dress, chunky gold necklaces, and a pair of designer sunglasses pushing her hair back off of her face, and we had the feeling that we had somewhat pulled her away from the postcard-perfect view of the historic town of Cochem that her private rooftop terrace afforded her. Yet, even with our late intrusion, the welcome was warm. Evelina's family had been running the hotel for a long time and she clearly played a part in all of the comings and goings here - so with a flourish of her hand and a broad smile, she whisked us on a speedy tour of the hotel amenities.

We moved rapidly from room to room, being shown art filled lounges, sunny terraces, and the modern dining room - all glass and marble - bolted onto the more traditional timber and stone villa that formed the original buildings of this riverside retreat. Pulling back the door to the undercounter fridges, she revealed row-upon-row of house branded wine.

"Ehrlichkeitstheke... umm... Honesty Bar," she said pointing into the bottles, gesturing that we could help ourselves to the wine they grew in their vineyard just down the river, just as long as we filled in a slip so we could be charged at the end of our stay. Bottles of rosé, sparkling Rieslings, strong brandies, and dry white Burgundies, all for us to help ourselves to and get a taste of the best the Moselle Valley has to offer.

The terrace of Hotel Villa Vie

First Pour & Breaking the UK's Riesling Resistance

It didn't take us long until we had settled on the warm, wide, columned terrace - facing the beautifully framed Reichsburg Castle, dominating the hill overlooking the small town of Cochem from on high. The only correct accompaniment to such a view being, of course, a classic Riesling we'd picked out of the wine cooler just moments earlier. Before the wine could touch my lips I was haunted of memories of German wines of old: sipping overly sweet, cheap Hock at my grandparents during a Sunday Roast; stealing a bottle of warm Blue Nun from my friend's parents, to drink in a field at dusk while we were to young to be drinking. There's a snobbery about German wines that pervades the British consciousness thanks to mass-produced exports in the 80's and 90's, and the 'stack it high, sell it cheap' strategies of the supermarkets well after that. However, nothing about Evelina's pride in the wines her family produced led me to believe we were dealing with the same thing: surely all German wine can't be like the Liebfraumilch we get in Tesco? As the crisp wine touched my lips, I immediately knew my suspicion was correct - this was Riesling! A fresh, green apply-ness, minerality, and zesty acidity not too dissimilar to a Vinho Verde. Beautifully cool and perfect for cutting through the riverside humidity like an ice-pack to the face - just what I needed.

The Heart of the Vine: Family Legacy along the Moselle

Evelina's story is not unique in the region, plenty of families have vineyards all the way along the Moselle Valley - stretching the nearly 200km between the ancient city of Trier, and where the river empties into Rhine at Koblenz - many of which have passed from generation to generation over hundreds of years. As we walked along the river, heading into the heart of Cochem, we passed by acres of ancient terraces, covered high in vines, with hand painted signs describing the family-owners of that particular patch and the varieties they were growing.

Entering the timber framed town via the Moselpromenade, we were immediately caught by the buzz of a small festival in the main square. A band on a small stage were hammering at pace through a medley of ABBA hits, and around the edge of the square, small tents all occupied by other family producers from the region around Cochem.

"We don't chase trends, we make wine the way our mother did", said one of the owners - a friendly gentleman in a black tee-shirt and short cropped hair - selling trocken (dry) and halbtrocken (semi-sweet) rosés and whites for €3 a glass. It's that kind of passion that is palpable here, every wine is named after a family member and every vineyard has passed from generations down to today with the same love, respect, and skill they've had for time immemorial.

Grapes and Vines are grown in every available space

A Valley Steeped in Wine History

These families represent the modern face of a thousand-year-old tradition of wine making in the Moselle Valley, starting with the Roman settlement of Augusta Treverorum - modern-day Trier - in the 1st-century BC. The Roman's brought vines and knowhow with them, seeing a perfect opportunity to use the steep, sunny, well draining slopes of the river valley to produce wines locally rather than import wines via the perilous journeys across the Alps and through Gaul. As Trier gained in importance (even being elevated to a Roman Capital at one point) the need for good quality wines increased and the industry took root. In fact, the vineyards here are some of the oldest in the world, some tracing their histories back nearly 2,000 years.

But the golden age of German wines came in the 18th and 19th-centuries, when Rieslings from the Moselle and the Rhine would grace the tables of aristocracy and royalty across Europe (Queen Victoria was definitely a fan, and would often list them when she was entertaining at state banquets). A bottle from a top producer could fetch a price similar to (or higher than) Bordeaux or Champagne, and were prized as some of the best white wines on earth. However, the 20th-century saw the end to these boom-days, with both wars decimating vineyards, the export market, and reputations globally. As borders shifted between France and Germany, many families moved to escape conflict and persecution, and the winemaking economy collapsed. Even after the war, the focus for winegrowers in Cold-War era West Germany switched from quality to bulk-production in order to survive. This lead to the growth of low-quality wines (need I say Black Tower) which were bland, using grapes that were reliable but uninspiring, and exported en masse to the UK and USA.

Since the 1990's, following the reunification of Germany and the political stability that followed, a new generations of winemakers - often returning to reclaim family vineyards - have restored the focus on quality, terroir-driven Rieslings. Evelina's family is no different, choosing to focus on organic and sustainable viticulture, and championing trocken style whites and rosés, working the steep, hard-to-work vineyards that machinery is unable to reach and others had abandoned.

"The steepness of the slope is hard to work, but makes the Rieslings what they are" she tells us, and she's not wrong about the slope.

The steep vineyards of Cochem

Why Riesling Deserves Your Respect

We stop half way up the hill underneath the towering Reichsburg to take in the view and catch our breath. The vineyards here are towering, climbing up sharply from the broad, flat river and covering the slate rich banks on every bend of the river. It's this slate that gives the Moselle it's edge, both giving the wines it's crisp, flinty taste, and also radiating warmth into the vines even long after sunset. It gets cool here (although you wouldn't think it during the heatwave we've coincided our stay with) and this allows the grapes to ripen slowly on the vine, preserving that lovely acidity and dryness that makes German Rieslings stand out. And better yet, they're low alcohol too, with many not rising much about 10% meaning they're refreshing - something we found was much needed during the scorcher we were in. You'd be forgiven for thinking that the only style of wine they grow here is dry Riesling because, admittedly, we couldn't get enough of it. However, the wines they grow here come in all styles; from halbtrocken (or semi-sweet) which just have a hint of sweetness to balance out the traditional acidity (and works beautifully in a punch with locally grown strawberries, as we delighted in finding out one sweltering afternoon); sweeter versions, like kabinett and spätlese, where the grapes are harvested later in the autumn making them fruitier, pairing beautifully with regional pork and pate dishes; and dessert wines, like eiswein and beerenauslese versions, where the grapes are left to go overripe or even freeze on the vine before harvesting, providing a super sweet and luxurious digestif. Even the sparkling Riesling market is taking off here, providing a zesty alternative to champagne, with a similar dryness and affordability to Crémant made just across the border in France and Luxembourg.

All wine was consumed for research purposes only, I hope you understand

A Queer Toast in the Vineyards: Don't Skip the Quiet Ones

In short, none of the wines we tried in the Moselle Valley (and we tried quite a few for research purposes of course) tasted like I thought I knew. German wine, much like Evelina's hotel tucked into the bend of the Moselle river, doesn't shout to be heart - it waits to be discovered. It's not loud or brash, and won't fill every shelf of every British supermarket you walk into, but layered, generous and full of history. And just like the wine her family produces - from crisp and dry to bubbling and sweet - Evelina herself embodied the full spectrum: warm-hearted, refined, and full of life.

We sat on a peaceful evening on the terrace, with the golden sun setting just behind the huge towers and battlements of the castle and raised a glass to the triumphant return of German wine. In a world that often overlooks the quiet ones, German wines remind us that sometimes even the most misunderstood things are also the most remarkable - you just have to linger a little longer to find out the truth.

So next time you find yourself looking at a wine list - or planning a trip through Europe - don't skip over Germany. Give its wines the same chance Evelina gave us: to slow down, to listen, and to truly taste what's been there all along.

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Cochem and the Castle at sunset