Located on a sharp bend at the Mosel river, Piesport has been producing wine since Roman times and in 1985 a 4th century Roman wine press was discovered here. Consisting of 7 basins, it could handle grapes from 60 hectares, making it the largest found north of the Alps.
Despite having one of Germany's most legendary vineyards, Goldtröpfchen (gold droplet), the Piesporter wines has a reputation for either being world class or sweet indifferent crap.
The reason for the latter is that some Piesporters are chaptalized with sugar added to the juice before fermentation to increase the alcohol level. These cheap wines are export only and often made from Elbling and Müller-Thurgau varieties. Sold with labels like "Piesporter Michelsberg" - meaning unspecified vineyard in the area of Piesport. In other words, not from the excellent Goldtröpfchen.
Goldtröpfchen is the real star in Piesport and our latest visit in July revealed that the 2016 vintage is not a step down from the legendary 2015. This time around we had the pleasure of visiting Hain, Später-Veit, Weingut Kirsten, Lehnert-Veit and Manfred Breit. All of them showcasing wines of high quality with elegance, depth and purity.