Douro and Mosel, similar yet so different...

Two of the most famous wine regions along the rivers are probably the Douro in Portugal and the Mosel in Germany. Both have similar topography - winding rivers, steep slopes with altitude between 400 and 600m planted with vines, and of course spectacular scenery. However, this is where the similarities end. The differences in climate, soil and grape varieties make the wines produced in these two regions a world apart. After spending a few weeks in the Douro Valley, I went straight to the Mosel. It was fascinating to compare and contrast these two regions, learning and understanding why their wines are so different.

Top: Douro; Bottom: Mosel 

First let’s look at the Douro. The river is nearly 900km long flowing from Spain but only the last 200km is in Portugal. The wine region, also called Alto Douro, is situated to the east of Marão Mountains and stretched nearly to the border of Spain. The three sub-regions from west to east are Baixo Corgo, Cima Corgo and Douro Superior. The climate is largely continental with hot, dry summers and cold winters. Rainfall drops progressively from west to east with around 1,200mm per annum in Baixo Corgo to 700mm in Cima Corgo and down to less than 400mm in Douro Superior. The soil is mainly schist, stony, poor and with good drainage. The Douro is the world’s largest area of mountain vineyard, and is one of the wildest wine regions in Portugal, if not the world. Although harsh, wine has been made in the region for over 2,000 years and the vineyards were demarcated in 1756. The Douro was classified as a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2001 because of its historic, narrow, stone-walled vine terraces.

Turning to Mosel, a tributary of the Rhine and only 545km long, also has some 200km flowing in Germany. Vineyards are found along this stretch of Mosel River and its tributaries, the Saar and Ruwer. The region is divided into Southern Mosel, Middle Mosel and Lower Mosel (also known as Terraced Mosel). It is pretty much at the other end of the climate spectrum comparing to the Douro with cool summers and mild winters where average annual temperature is around 10ºC across the entire region. Annual rainfall is between 670mm in Lower Mosel and 900mm in Southern Mosel. Soil varies in the region, from gravels and sands on flat land to quartzite sandstones in Lower Mosel. The 400 million old Devonian slate in all colours: blue, grey, brown and red, can be found in half of the vineyards. Mosel is the world’s biggest steep slopes wine region (over 18º, 30%), with the steepest one at 67º.

Top: Port vineyard close to river in the Douro;
 Bottom: Ürziger Würzgarten in Mose

In the Douro, temperature and rainfall, not soil, are the deciding factors of viticulture. Port is made from ripe and concentrated grapes, and top quality port vineyards have often been planted on the lower slopes in the deep, hotter and drier Douro valley, where the yield is low. These days, producers may plant red varieties on north facing slopes or at higher altitude (300 to 400m) to produce fresher grapes for blending. Recently, some wineries are experimenting with international white varieties such as Sauvignon Blanc and Gewürztraminer planted at around 500m above sea level with encouraging results; and there is even a sparkling wine producer with vineyards on the high slopes of Alto Douro.

In contrast, the climate in the Mosel region is fairly similar but the many different soil types make it possible to produce wine of different expressions. Riesling and slate are made for each other. Blue slate Riesling highlights the minerality while red slate Riesling has more stone fruits aromas. The famous Grand Cru site, Ürziger Würzgarten with red volcanic rocks, gives Riesling a distinctive spicy flavour. Müller-Thurgau thrives on the gavel and sand, while the Pinots - both Weissburguder (Pinot Blanc) and Spätburgunder (Pinot Noir) are at home on limestone and marl soils. However, because of its cool climate, no vineyards are planted on the north-facing slopes.

Top: Building patamares in the Douro;
Bottom: Steep slope harvester in Mosel 

Both wine regions face challenging conditions in planting vines on slopes. In the Douro, terraces, both the narrow ancient walled terraces with only one or two rows of vines and the more recent, broader patamares (platforms) are necessary on steeper slopes, while vinha ao alto (vertical vineyard) where rows of vines on wires running up and down the slopes is the preferred technique on gentler slopes of around 20º (30%). In the Mosel, vertical plantings using wires can often be seen on slopes steeper than 20º and monorails are used for transporting materials up and down the slopes. Only on the steepest slopes are terraced vineyards. Vines on recently planted vineyards, whether vertical plantings or on terraces, are trained on wires but in older vineyards, vines were planted individually with a stake and trellised in Mosel Arch, where two canes are bent into heart shape, to prevent soil erosion. Because of the terrain, only limited mechanisation can be used and harvest is totally done by hand in both regions. Having said that, a German company has developed an award-winning steep slope harvester in 2016 that can work on both slopes up around 35º, and narrow terraces. A producer in the Douro has bought the machine and a few Mosel wineries rented it for the 2017 harvest. Since it is more and more difficult to get manpower for harvest, and that the machine can pick gently and a lot faster than man (it works as fast as 40 people), it won’t be a surprise that more wineries will opt for at least partial machine harvest in these regions.

Top: Touriga Nacional in the Douro;
Bottom: Riesling in Mosel 

As for grape varieties and wine styles, the majority in the Douro are indigenous grapes where some 30 of them can be used to make port, a fortified wine where the best can be aged for over 100 years. Still wine, predominately red, has been made in the region for a long time but it was only in the last 20 years or so that it was being noticed. Today, a few producers focus on producing still wine (both red and white) and some even experiment with international aromatic white varieties planted at high altitude. Blending is essential for port but most still wine are also blended from different local varieties. In Mosel, on the other hand, over 90% wine is white of which 2/3 is Riesling, and nearly all wine is 100% single varietal. Riesling grown on different soils has different expressions and it can be made in sparkling and from dry to sweet. The rare sweet wine, Trockenbeerenauslese (TBA), like port, can age gracefully for over 100 years.

Both regions have spectacular scenery but again in opposite spectrum. Vineyards in Douro are remote and rugged. On top of the vineyards, you either feel you are very small or you own the whole world depending on your state of mind. But on most Mosel vineyards, you enjoy the space while the view of village, and therefore civilisation, is always in sight.

Most wine lovers are aware of the facts above but it’s an inspiration to be in both places at the same time. I was in the Douro making and tasting big red wine only five days before I was in Mosel making and tasting the delicate Riesling. Both regions make fantastic wine and I think this is the best illustration of terroir - a combination of climate, soil, geography and man (to plant the right varieties in the right place).

Luckily, both regions are tourist-friendly. Plan your next holiday in one of the regions or even better, visit both regions and see for yourself the contrast like I did.

Top: Vila Nova de Gaia;
Bottom: Traben-Trarbach

Vila Nova de Gaia, just across the city of Porto, is a mecca for port lovers where major port houses age their wines in lodges. Cellar tours and tastings designed for all levels of engagement are offered, and you can pamper yourself in The Yeatman, a luxury wine hotel and spa in Porto with spectacular views over the UNESCO World Heritage city and the Douro River; or enjoy Northern Portuguese cuisine at Vinum Restaurant & Wine Bar in the Graham’s Lodge. It is easy to do a day trip to Pinhão in the heart of the Douro to visit a few more port houses and wineries. However, the best is to spend a few days in the valley and take the boat cruise to admire the vineyards from river level.

As for Mosel, numerous villages dotted along the river and and there are always cellar doors/wineries in or very close to villages that welcome wine lovers. If you are there during harvest, you can try federweisser (fermenting grape juice) in some wineries. You can hop on and off boats to visit these historical villages, notably Cochem, Traben-Trarbach and Bernkastel-Kues. For the energetic ones, go cycle along the river or hike up one of the steep vineyard sites.

An Aussie in the Mosel-land

The second stop of my journey was Mosel in Germany. However, I was not with a typical Mosel winery.

Martin Cooper is an Australian winemaker who used to make wine in Margaret River but now he is making Riesling in Mosel. Asked why the move? Martin explained that he has always been the ‘Old World’ guy, and that people often compared his wine to those of Burgundian Chardonnay and Rhone Syrah. Since Riesling is the pinnacle of wine, he therefore decided he should be in Germany, the home of Riesling.

Martin believes that only extreme terroir produces serious wine because wine resonates the environment where it acquires its fingerprint. Therefore, wine produces from a region that grows various grape varieties, though well made, does not really have an identity. Of all Germany’s wine regions, he loves Mosel because it is the region with extreme terroir, steep slopes and marginal climate; and it focuses only on one variety, Riesling. In 2014, Martin took the plunge and teamed up with Kloster Ebernach, a working monastery for the mentally handicapped in the historical town of Cockhem in Mosel. The monastery has been making wine since 1673.

Martin practices biodynamic viticulture to fully express terroir. A lot of winemakers try to explain biodynamic farming but Martin interprets in a different way. He said plants are intelligent but reactive. Therefore, when treated with fertilisers and herbicides, they become lazy. Biodynamic promotes biodiversity but also encourages diseases. Vines therefore have to protect themselves from being attacked by producing more phenol, resulting in thicker and stronger skin. In winemaking, phenol is a positive attribute therefore wine made from grapes with higher phenol concentration has more complexity. He even compared this to human being - that over protected children are likely to become weak adults.

Probably because of his Australian training, Martin does not believe in biodynamic winemaking as it is unpredictable and has a high risk of volatility. He does, however, use minimum dosage of chemicals, and play with spontaneous yeast fermentation in amphorae.

I had a chance to work with Martin and his small team for a short period during 2017 harvest. He is self-confident, creative, yet a bit unorganised although in a positive way. His characters reflect in his wine. He makes all styles of Riesling from sparkling to sweet and also experiments with orange Riesling. The first vintage of his orange wine spent 40 days on skin, and he increased this to 300 days for the second vintage, then scaled back to 180 days for the 2016 vintage. The wine is refreshing with orange peel aroma, like drinking a pleasant cold tea in a summer day and its goes well with some strong flavoured food. Martin has three ranges of wine each with its own label, nice on its own but somehow doesn’t really convey the wine and
also lacks the common identity. However, don’t dismiss the wine because of the labels, the content is what counts.

Like most vintners in Mosel, Weingut Kloster Ebernach is a small producer but Martin is nevertheless watching out for more vineyards on the steep slopes. He is also looking for a partner that shares his vision. Anyone who fancies the idea of making wine in extreme terroir may want to have a chat with Martin.

While the quality of wine is the most important, it is the story behind the label that gets the attention of consumers. The adventure of a lone Aussie on the Mosel terraced slopes is certainly a unique story.

The New generation of German winemakers

It was a pleasure to chat with Cornelius Dönnhoff and Nik Weis, owners of Weingut Dönnhoff in Nahe and Weingut St. Urbans-Hof in Mosel at a recent tasting organised by Kerry Wines.

There are commonalities between these two wineries. Both are family owned and highly regarded in their own right. Cornelius and Nik are the latest generation to be in charge of the estates, with Cornelius only taking over in 2000 and Nik back in 1997. Both respect the traditions and are committed to producing top quality wines, just like their fathers and grandfathers.

But their wines, though all Rieslings, are different. Dönnhoff is in Nahe, between Mosel and Rheinhessen. As in Mosel, the vineyards are on
steep south-facing slopes on the banks of the Nahe river. It is warmer, so the wine has riper fruit characters than Mosel’s but still retains the acidity. Cornelius, like his father, likes clean, straightforward wines. He may use cultured yeasts but only the neutral kind whose sole job is to ferment the grape juice rather than enhancing flavours, thus allowing the wine to express itself. Dönnhoff has nine Grand Cru vineyards, and according to Cornelius they have different soil types, ranging from slate at Hermannshöhle and Kreuznacher to volcanic at Felsenberg and loam at Krötenpfuhl. All grapes are vinified the same way but the wines from each site taste different. Before joining the family business, Cornelius had worked in Australia and New Zealand but he realised that because of the differences in climate he couldn’t blindly apply New World techniques at Dönnhoff. He believes his father’s way of working with the vines and grapes is still the best way to express the Nahe terroir. I asked if he would blend the different crus together to make a superblend. His answer was a definite no. The wines have been made as single vineyard wines since his father’s day and they are as good as they can be. By the way, his father is Helmut Dönnhoff, named German Winemaker of the Year in 1999 by the Gault Millau Guide to German Wines.

Turning to Nik Weis, the third generation owner. Technically he is not a member of ‘Generation Riesling’, a term used to refer to the young generation of German winemakers under 35 years old (sorry Nik), but he is no doubt their inspiration. Weingut St. Urbans-Hof, because of Nik’s consistently high standards, was admitted as a member of the prestigious VDP (Association of German Prädikat Estates) in 2000. The 32ha of vineyards are located in Mosel and Saar where the soil has several colours of slate—blue, grey and red—that contribute to the distinctive minerality of Mosel Riesling. He only makes Riesling as he firmly believes the terroir of the Mosel-Saar-Ruwer region—cool nights, marginal sunlight, steep slopes, the heat-absorbing slate and the river—is ideally suited to expressing the elegance and finesse of Riesling. I also like his philosophy: "Sweetness belongs to Mosel wine like bubbles belong to Champagne". The combination of residual sugar, crisp acidity and minerality create a harmoniously fruity sensation, and the natural sweetness also extends the ageing potential. He explained to us that natural residual sugar in wine is mainly fructose, which is light and fruity, in contrast to the grape concentrate or süssreserve that is added to dry wine to make lesser sweet wines. Grape concentrate is glucose; it makes wine cloying and heavy rather than light and elegant.

Having said that, Nik reckons climate change has allowed German winemakers to start making less-sweet wines. Sugar is necessary to balance the high level of harsh malic acid in a traditional Riesling, but, as the climate warms, the concentration of malic acid decreases so less sugar is needed to balance the wine. We tasted two Spätleses from Leiwener Laurentiuslay vineyard. The 2001 vintage has 50g/l of residual sugar but the 2011 vintage, which was much warmer, has only half as much (25g/l). Both tasted delicious and balanced. With consumers moving towards drier wines, both Nik and Cornelius agreed that climate change is to their advantage as they are now able to make good quality dry Rieslings. The Dönnhoff Hermannshöhle Grosses Gewächs dry Riesling 2012 was a fine example.

We tried four Spätleses at the tasting, two each from Nik and Cornelius (vintage 2001 and 2011). They were just fantastic: rich, with a depth of flavour supported by a crisp acidity, resulting in concentrated yet elegant wines. I didn’t like sweet Riesling when I first started tasting wine, but I have come to realise that it was the badly made sweet Rieslings that I didn’t like. Clearly, fructose and glucose really do taste different!

Both Dönnhoff and St. Urbans-Hof are available from Kerry Wines.

Appreciating Riesling

Riesling is a difficult grape to understand and appreciate. It has many faces, from sparkling (Sekt from Germany), and dry to sweet made from botrytis noble rot grapes or grapes frozen at -8ºC, and with all kinds of sweetness in between. The common characteristics of all Rieslings are high acidity and relatively low alcohol.

In my discussions with Mosel winemakers, including Reinhard Löwenstein, the 13th generation of Weingut Heymann-Löwenstein, and biodynamic winemaker Clemens Busch, they all stressed the influence of slate on German Rieslings. Blue slate lies deeper underground and vines have to work hard to get the trace minerals, resulting in wine with more minerality—the typical elegant Mosel style. Red slate has a more rounded mouthfeel with gooseberry and red fruits, while grey slate gives more yellow and tropical fruits. At the Riesling Journey masterclass conducted by Carsten Klane from German Fine Wine in Hong Kong last month, we tasted several German Rieslings alongside Rieslings from Alsace and Australia, and the differences were obvious. German Riesling has a tighter and leaner structure, especially the Mosels which can be steely, while Alsatian Riesling is bolder. Australian Riesling is generous but lacks the subtlety of those from the Old World when compared side by side.

Apart from the sweet noble rot and ice wine Rieslings, where consumers know that the wines are, well, sweet, many people are confused and put off by the off dry/medium style Rieslings from Germany. I have to confess this is the reason I didn’t go near Riesling when I first explored wine. The trick, instead of focusing on the sweetness, is to think about the balance between sweetness, acidity, alcohol and fruit. A well-made medium dry Riesling is not cloying like syrup, but concentrated and fruity with a nicely balanced sweetness set against the acidity. It can go well with a variety of savoury dishes from steamed dumplings (蒸餃子) to Kung Pao chicken (宮保雞丁) and sweet and sour prawns (咕嚕蝦球).

A couple of useful tips on sweetness when you buy German Riesling: Kabinett, Spätlese and Auslese are categorised according to the sugar level at the time of harvest. They can all be either dry or medium. You need to interpret this with reference to the alcohol level. For example, a Kabinett with 11% alcohol will be dry while one with 8% alcohol will by semi-dry. Similarly, a dry Spätlese has about 12-13% alcohol and  a dry Auslese about 13-13.5%.

Here are a few useful German - English translations to help you read the labels:

• Trocken: Dry. Any wine with this word will have less than 9g/l residual sugar.
• Grosses Gewächs (GG)/Erste Gewächs: Equivalent to Grand Cru. Dry wine from Erste Lage (first growth vineyards) under the VDP classification. Alcohol level usually 12-13.5%.
• Halbtrocken: Off-dry, usually 9-18g/l residual sugar.
• Feinherb: Half-dry, an unregulated designation, usually sweeter than halbtocken, in the range of 12-40g/l residual sugar.
• VPA: the Association of German Quality Wine Estates.

Clemens-Busch is available from German Fine Wine, and Weingut Heymann-Löwenstein is available from Berry Bros & Rudd.

Riesling: The taste of slate

‘Riesling is the medium to express the soil and terroir’ said Reinhard Löwenstein, from the 13th generation of Weingut Heymann-Löwenstein in Mosel (to be exact, Terrassenmosel, Terrace Mosel), Germany, during last week's tasting of eight of his Rieslings. All eight were vinified in the same way but with grapes from a number of vineyards with differing soil and slate compositions. Riesling grown on blue slate has mineral, lemony notes while that grown on red slate has a more rounded mouthfeel. Riesling on darker stone, on the other hand, displays more yellow fruit aroma, mellower acidity and less minerality. I like his philosophy of comparing wine with music: mass market wine is like CD and great wine is opera. Music lovers listening to CD for a while may like to listen to opera, just as wine lovers might trade up and appreciate the quality of hand-crafted wine eventually. My favourites were the 2009 Stolzenberg Grosses Gewachs (Grand Cru) and 2009 Uhlen Grosses Gewachs Laubach.