The Moselle Cycle Route. Mike Wells

      Winningen, home of Germany’s oldest wine festival (Stage 14)

      Weinorten (wine-producing villages) spread right along the gorge, from the French border to Koblenz, and extend short distances down the Saar and Ruwer valleys. Most villages have a number of vineyard slopes, some on more favourable ground than others, and individual growers have strips of vines in different vineyards. Each grower has their own regime of pruning, weeding and application of pesticides. As a result, when seen from a distance, every vineyard appears as a patchwork of plots. The most renowned ‘great first-class vineyards’, all on south-facing slopes, tend to be in the middle part of the gorge between Schweich and Zell and include Goldtröpfchen and Domherr in Piesport, Juffer and Sonnenuhr slopes in Brauneberg, Bernkasteler Doctor, Wehlener Sonnenuhr and the Würzgarten, Prälat and Treppchen vineyards between Ürzig and Erden. There is also one in the Saar Valley (Schwarzhofberg) and two in the Ruwer (Karthäuserhofberg and Grünhauser Abtsberg). Other famous vineyards, often with associated local legends include the Kröver Nacktarsch (bare bottom), Zeller Schwarze Katz (black cat) and Bullayer Brautrock (bridal gown). Most weinorte have an annual wine festival, the oldest being in Winningen near Koblenz.

      Not surprisingly, prices vary from reasonable to very expensive, although you will be surprised at how affordable much of the wine is. Perhaps the best way to sample the various wines is to try a small glass of Kabinett with a lunchtime snack and a Spätlese or Auslese with your evening meal (ask for trochen if you want dry!). To go the whole hog, you could finish with an after dinner glass of sweet dessert wine – ask for Trochenbeerenauslese. One way to compare a wide variety of wines at one time is to buy a €15 sampling ticket at the Vinothek, a co-operative wine merchant in the cellars of the Cusanus St Nikolaus monastery in Kues (Stage 11), where you can taste over 100 wines.

      Other parts of the Moselle valley also produce wine. Lorraine was once a major wine-producing region, but after the industry was wiped out by the 19th-century phylloxera epidemic, little replanting was carried out. Nowadays production is limited to a small area around Metz and a larger area around Toul (Côtes de Toul) that is best known for Vin Gris, a rosé wine made from a blend of Gamay, Pinot Noir and local white grape varieties. In Luxembourg wine is produced all along the Moselle, with Rivaner (a local name for Müller-Thurgau) being the dominant, although declining, grape. The best-known wine is Crémant de Luxembourg, a champagne-style sparkling wine.