Working vineyards along the Mosel as well as its two contribuaries Ruwer and Saar is hard work. The vineyards are often steep, as in very steep, the resulting wines are still insanely undervalued on the world market (especially when you consider how much manual labor needs to go into these vineyards), and this has led to a decrease in area under vine year after year.
This morning, however, I found some good news on my Facebook feed: The wineries Van Volxem and Markus Molitor, arguably among the highest esteemed wineries in the area, are recultivating an old and highly valued vineyard along the Saar: The Geisberg. Most of the hill had lost its vines by the 1970s and 1980s, a stunning development given that its wines sold for four times the price as Chateau Margaux on restaurant menus in 1900!
The article explaining the details is a couple of weeks old (my bad for not spotting it earlier), but the owner of Van Volxem, Roman Niewodniczanski, details the plans and current work on Lars Carlberg’s site here:
The Rebirth of a Riesling legend
I am looking forward to trying these wines from vines that will be planted in the spring of 2016. The article does a good job at explaining the history as well as what it means to recultivate a vineyard.
Van Volxem winery has posted some photos, and it’s really exhilarating seeing this project in action…and the hill is stunning!
the winegetter 
The photos are stunning! And thanks for the recent visit to my blog – I always enjoy yours and drool over the wines! Cheers!
Yeah, I wish I could have copied them into the post, they were that stunning.
That sounds wonderful, Oliver. I only hope they don’t plan to charge 4 times cost of Chateau Margaux today…
I’m certain they won’t…:)