Riesling of Two Rivers

Day 1

Eltville: wine, roses and sparkling

We meet at Frankfurt Airport and make the short drive to Eltville, the oldest town in the Rheingau. It was here that the Archbishop of Mainz took an ageing Johannes Gutenberg under his protection, and the rose garden by the walls of the Electoral Castle holds hundreds of varieties.

Our first tasting is at the sparkling wine house Schloss Vaux, named after the village near Metz where it was founded in the 19th century. They make Sekt by the traditional method, as in Champagne, but with Riesling as the main grape. In the evening we walk along the Rhine and have dinner over a glass of dry local Riesling.

Day 2

Monks, counts and a legend

We start in Kiedrich, a Gothic village above the Rhine. The Gräfenberg slope above it has produced wines that have set price records at German auctions for over a century.

Next is Kloster Eberbach. Cistercian monks founded the abbey in 1136 and turned the Rheingau into one of Europe’s great wine regions. The interiors of The Name of the Rose with Sean Connery were filmed here. Nearby lies the Steinberg vineyard, enclosed by a stone wall since the 18th century. The cellars hold the “cabinet” where the monks kept their best wines, and one theory says this is where the word Kabinett on German labels comes from.

In the afternoon we visit Schloss Johannisberg, one of the first estates in the world planted entirely with Riesling. This is where the story of 1775 is told: a courier carrying permission to start the harvest arrived late, the grapes overripened, and the wine turned out unexpectedly good. That, according to legend, is how Spätlese, “late harvest”, was born. In the evening we’ll taste a young and an aged Riesling side by side to see what time does to wine.

Day 3

Above the Rhine Gorge and over the hills to the Mosel

We drive up to the Niederwald Monument. The statue of Germania was raised here in 1883 to mark German unification, and from the terrace you can see the Rhine turn into a narrow gorge. From there we head down to Assmannshausen, a rare corner of the Rheingau known for red wine. Legend has it that monks brought Pinot Noir here from Burgundy. We’ll taste what it becomes on local slate.

After lunch we take the ferry across to Bingen, cross the wooded Hunsrück hills and descend to the Mosel at the village of Pölich. From there the road follows the river, bend after bend, past Trittenheim and Piesport. Piesport still has a Roman wine press from the 4th century, a reminder that wine has been made here for almost two thousand years. The evening is a first introduction to the Mosel in a Bernkastel wine tavern.

Day 4

The Middle Mosel: slate, capsules and stars

In the morning we visit Markus Molitor, who took over the family estate at twenty and whose wines have since been awarded 100 points more than once. Molitor uses his own label system: the colour of the capsule tells you whether a wine is dry, off-dry or sweet, and the stars show how selectively the grapes were picked. It’s an easy way to understand how Kabinett differs from Spätlese and Auslese.

Lunch is in Bernkastel, among the half-timbered houses on the market square. Above the town lies the Doctor vineyard, named after a legend that its wine cured a sick archbishop after his physicians had given up.

In the afternoon we visit Schloss Lieser, a late 19th-century castle on the Mosel run by Thomas Haag, whose brother Oliver runs the family estate across the river. Here we’ll compare how one grape speaks on different slopes. Farewell dinner overlooking the river, with a sweet Riesling to finish.

Day 5

The Middle Rhine and home

We return to the Rhine over the Hunsrück and drive the left bank through the most scenic stretch of the valley, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, past the Loreley rock, castles and riverside towns. We stop for lunch in Bacharach, whose name folk etymology traces to “the altar of Bacchus”. A short walk up to the Gothic ruins of the Werner Chapel, one last look at the river, and on to Frankfurt Airport.