Travel with the Zenks: A Tale of Wine, a Town and a Castle

We are sailing through one of the best regions in France for the production of white wine. The steep hills are made of slate which warms up easily and holds the heat, releasing it slowly during the night. Even though the mountains are steep, vineyards have flourished since Roman times. Most of the plants are in vertical rows. I would think that would allow a lot of erosion, but I understand that a single plant will send out roots for over 12 feet, holding the soil. Also the plants in vertical rows do not shade the rows below them. At least that is what we have been told. However, in more recent time, more vines are being planted in horizontal rows.

Either way, all the grapes must be picked by hand. Women make better pickers because they are fussier about what they pick. Any grapes that are "sunburned" or damaged in any way will ruin the taste of the wine, so they are just left on the vines or thrown on the ground. There are now tracks running up the hill between sections of grape plants. A small "carta" goes up to collect the bags of grapes so it is no longer necessary to have strong men with what looks like a frame backpack go up and down with full loads of grapes. We learned all this at a winery which has been in the same family for 11 generations. The son did not want to carry on the family tradition, so he went off to college. There he found out that there was a lot of science involved in making wine and came home with some new ideas.

Some previous blended wines were pretty bad, but, using his knowledge of the chemistry and properties of the grapes suited to this region, he created an new blended wine. To avoid the old stigma of blended wine, he called it "cuvee" a French term meaning blended instead of the German word. Now they produce thousands of bottles of it and it is widely accepted. When we tasted it we knew why!

Cochem, on the Moselle River in Germany, was built, attacked, destroyed, and rebuilt many times. Every time the balance of power shifted between the French and Germans, French troops would destroy the town. Very little of the old town and its walls remain, but this section of the main gate and the adjacent house escaped destruction since it was built.

The house and wall were built in 1332!

Since most of the town lies along the river, they are accustomed to having a foot or two of flooding each spring. However, they did not expect this high water in December 1993. People had to be rescued from the second story windows. One part of the town is well above any high water -- the castle.