Germans name region in one word: Mosel

The Germans are really going all out to make their wines as consumer friendly as possible. Having started to adopt familiar grape varieties, such as Pinot Grigio and Pinot Noir instead of the less well-known names Grauburgunder and Spatburgunder, the Mosel-Saar-Ruwer growers’ organisation has now won approval to call its region just Mosel.

This is expected to be amended to German Wine Law on 1 January 2008 and will apply starting with the 2007 vintage. The reason is simple: Mosel is easier to say – and remember – and there’s no confusion for drinkers that the wines might be a three-region blend.

Confusingly though, Saar producers will still be able to use ‘Saar Riesling’ on their labels with Mosel in small type and Ruwer producers will put ‘Ruwertal’ (meaning Ruwer Valley) on their bottles as ‘Ruwer’ is the name of a suburb of the regional capital Trier.