Viticulture on the Moselle - Germany

It is generally known that Moselle wine tastes good. However, what has to be done until the wine comes in the glass?

The Moselle enchants with its steep vine-covered slopes. We wanted to know more what the steep vineyards exactly mean for the daily work of the winegrowers.

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We got to know the winegrower couple Helmi and Rainer Heil in Brauneberg, approx 30 km northeastern of Trier. Rainer is an exceptional vintner who pursues his profession with enthusiasm.

He is always driven by the goal to produce the best wine which is confirmed by the numerous awards in his seasonal wine tavern. Once he received the award for the second best wine of the world.

His Brauneberger Juffer Sonnenuhr vineyard has a slope of up to 84 percent and is the steepest vineyard in Brauneberg. Riesling is cultivated here. Rainer focuses on quality and not on quantity.

No manuring is carried out in the maturity period (100 day) between flower and harvest. In the laboratories of Bayer and Fresenius was confirmed that the grapes do not contain any residues of plant protection products (up to 7 digits after the decimal point).

We could accompany different steps with the camera. First the pruning which is one of the most elaborate manual tasks. The chopped wood serves as fertilizer for the vineyard.

The vintage is part of most exhausting works. Only low machine support can be used at this steepness.

The mashing of the noble grapes for selected harvest is made manually with a bottle in the vat. Must weight is 130 degrees Oechsle.

The wine then is gently pressed in a fully automatic cloth wine press with a pressure of 1.2 bar.

The bottling of the wine is performed by a filling machine with a sterilizer, processing approx 1600-2000 bottles per hour. Sterilizing, filling, corking and capsuling, as well as the labeling is done automatically. The dry berry selection was evaluated by Parker & Johnson.

Further steps are necessary to produce, commercialize and to trade the wine successfully.

As guests in the seasonal wine tavern of Helmi and Rainer Heil one doesn’t notice the effort but enjoy the exceptional wine!