Fuchs - Outstanding Riesling from the Mosel

A Dedicated Vintner of Outstanding Riesling from the Mosel

Along the terraced slopes of the Mosel, Eva Maria and Josef Vallendar operate a small, exclusive, family wine business with just three hectares of growing space.

The business has been there for centuries, and Eva is the daughter at the end of a long list of the family Fuchs wine makers.

(Eva-Maria and Josef Vallendar)

Riesling is the grape variety, which they carefully cultivate in harmony with nature, on the posts of the steep slopes of their small vineyard. With these grapes, in old oak casks, Eva makes these grapes mostly to dry and semi-dry wines.

Her production methods are traditional and conservative: organic fertilisation with barn manure and straw. Volume is reduced by initial pruning to only one vine, and multiple selections of the grapes during the harvest period are the first steps in what Eva and Josef understand to lead to quality.

Production of the must comes, essentially without any pressure, from an original wine press from the year 1904.

Fermentation is with the natural yeast of the grapes - that is, without the pure, commercially produced yeast culture. This natural process is often known as spontaneous fermentation or wild fermentation - a process difficult to control, unless one is a real expert.

With Eva's wines, there is no deacidification and no fining; and a long maturation time in the oak cask (sometimes longer than 18 months) results in the production of wines from carefully selected grapes without the intervention of artificial or commercial processes.

(The one and only wine press, still used)

Eva and Josef quite intentionally do not seek to follow the trend of the moment, but rather sit in what has previously been their small niche in the great wine markets of the world, where it was almost as if they were waiting to be discovered.

They looked for appreciative consumers, who would enjoy watching their wines develop to their high point in all respects. They regard their wines in the same sense as the wine journalist, Rudolf Knoll, once said of them, Regard them as life forms.

(The winery and house)

All their efforts are directed towards producing wines, which unmistakably disclose their provenance, having that character typical for the region, the nose of which is said to hint of the stable, but equally of the surrounding, natural habitat - for which, today, one universally uses the French term 'Terroir'.

A true, Mosel Riesling is necessarily characterized by a noticeably robust acidity,which differentiates it from Riesling from all other regions, and indeed from all other white wines. The nose is characterised by aromas of peach, apricot, apple and citrus, as well as the steely mineral tones of the shale earth.

The lower alcohol content in comparison to other wines certainly gives it - even in the case of the occasional overdose - a tolerable quality.

This make these wines not only the ideal accompaniment to food, but also the ideal drink on any occasion wine can be enjoyed. Very often, these wines make great drinking when young, but they also have excellent cellaring potential.