Bergrettung & the Klitzekleine Ring

Behind the bright blue and yellow Bergrettung wine label is Der Klitzekleine Ring (the teensy-weensy ring), a group of eleven wineries from around the town of Traben-Trarbach. Their name is a sly innuendo alluding to the VDP's Grosser Ring (great ring) and is actually a modest understatement considering that the group's goal is to save vineyard parcels that have been abandoned due to their steepness and economic inefficiency.

From 2006 through 2008 the Klitzekleine Ring maintained a steep and terraced part of the Enkircher Ellergrub vineyard. The outstanding quality of the Riesling produced from this plot convinced a local grower to buy and maintain it in the future. Almost a hectare of Mosel wine culture was saved from being erased from the local wine map. Since 2009 the Klitzkleine Ring is taking care of a small plot of the Trabener Zollturm vineyard. The members of the group all help in the vineyard, but each year it is the responsibility of one of the eleven wineries to make the wine.

The objective of the group is laudable: to save vineyards that have a long track record of producing excellent wine, but which have become too difficult or too expensive to maintain. The grapes on these steep and often terraced vineyards have to be handpicked in dizzying heights. The only machine used during harvest is a cable car that takes the pickers to the top of the vineyard and carries their filled baskets back down to the valley. It is not uncommon to find vineyards with an inclination of 50% - or more. Farming them is not for the faint-hearted.

More and more of these abandoned plots are sadly crowning the hills of the Mosel valley now. How serious this situation is, was expressed in a call to action by Ulli Stein from Weingut Stein. The 2008 Bergrettung Riesling Spätlese is a glorious example of what the wine world is about to lose if the slow death of Mosel vineyards continues.

I bought the exceptional 2008 Bergrettung Riesling Spätlese for $37 last week. Not cheap, yet considering the manual labor involved making this wine it is actually astoundingly inexpensive. And worth every single dollar.