When the German government lifted the spring COVID lockdown in mid-May, my husband and I needed a break from the house, and our teens needed a break from us. (This was the first time they stayed overnight without us for a full weekend.) Back in 2018, we discovered our favorite winery: Weingut Thielen-Feilen. It sits in a teeny town called Minheim on the Mosel River. My husband has been saying for a year he wanted to visit. After a bit of research and some emails (good thing he speaks German), we had hotel reservations at the sole hotel in Minheim and an appointment for a wine tasting.
German Wine is Some of the World’s Best
Germany has some of the best wines in the world. If you haven’t actually travelled here and tasted the wine, you might think I’ve lost my mind. Germany, known for wine and not beer? You heard me correctly. A little known fact is that Germany has 13 wine regions that produce some of the best tasting (and inexpensive) wines on offer, as long we’re talking white wine. Amazing German wines are hard to find in America because they seem to keep it all for themselves. You won’t find most of these wines anywhere in the world so they must be enjoyed here. Lucky for us, Frankfurt is situated right near most of them, including the Mosel River area, home to 5,000 winegrowers.
Elated by a change of scenery. Same dreary weather, more churches, more German food, but somehow just a different location revived our spirits and gave us some hope. The Mosel River wine area is about 2 hours from Frankfurt, and the drive is beautiful. Through the Rhein valley area (another famous wine region), we passed vineyard after vineyard creeping up the steep hills of the river bank. The windy roads took us from one side of the river to the other through numerous picturesque towns, all filled with wineries.
Related: 5 Rhine River Cruise Mistakes (And How to Avoid Them)
Exploring the Mosel River and Sampling the Riesling
The Mosel is mainly famous for its wines made from the Riesling grape. Now, I know what you’re thinking. Ewww….riesling, it’s so sweet. But it’s not. Apparently, Germany must export only the sweet stuff which I think they assume is what we Americans like to drink. They keep the fantastic juice close to home.
On a trip out to wine country there are a few options for things to do. Larger towns like Trier, Koblenz, and Cochem provide castles (including Burg Eltz), medieval ruins, and fortresses, and during normal non-COVID times, each city, town, and village would host a series of festivals. The springtime tends to be when the big wine festivals are popular, and where many of the wineries make a substantial amount of their money. In the fall, during harvest season, you’ll likely find a rerun of more festivals. It’s a fantastic place to bike and hike. There are endless trails that run up and down the banks of the river, and it’s popular to just bike from one town to the next.
Related: What to Know for a Day Trip to Germany’s Other Fairy Tale Castle: Burg Eltz
11 Wineries for Every Person is Alot of Wine
We happened upon an awkward time when the weather was pretty gloomy and restaurants just opened back up. Our very brief weekend in Minheim consisted of eating, drinking, and hiking. In this small town of about 500 people, there are 55 wineries. That is a lot of wine per capita, which means everyone who lives there also works in the industry. We discovered you could almost go door-to-door and just ask for a wine tasting. That usually meant we’d buy some, too, but at 5-10 Euros a bottle, that seemed pretty reasonable.
Related: Wine at 10 am Plus 9 Unexpected Things to Experience in Alsace
Not really sure what to expect during our visit to the Weingut Thielen-Feilen, we met up with some of my husband’s friends. The owner Stephan, a fourth generation winemaker, happily greeted us and joined us at an outside table. We went through and tasted somewhere between 7 to 10 different wines and schnapps. Stephan accompanied us and talked about the labels, how he named each wine, his wine philosophy, etc. It was a complimentary multi-hour performance. Somewhere in the afternoon, we got a tour of the very humble production facility. During our many hours there, people would come and go to sample wines and take a few bottles away.
Prior to our afternoon of wine sampling, we enjoyed what may have been THE best meal in Germany at the Altes Kellerhaus in the nearby town of Wintrich. Along the Mosel, you will find several Michelin-starred restaurants unassumingly nestled in the quaint towns, and I’m convinced when this is the competition, the local gastronomy steps up its game.
