• Villages are generally listed upstream to downstream – basically south to north.
• Notable wineries based in each village are indicated (with the Gault-Millau rating of each, expressed in "*"). “Notable” means either rated *** or higher, well-known in USA, or historically important. The highest rating is *****.
• Hugh Johnson's First Class Vineyards are indicated (with a separate indication if one is a Great First Class vineyard). Taken from the Wine Atlas (5th ed).
• Square brackets indicate producers in a particular vineyard.
• NB: Only villages with first class vineyards and/or notable wineries are included in this list, not all villages.
• Vineyard names are always written “village+er vineyard” (e.g. “Wehlener Sonnenuhr) except if the vineyard is an ortsteil – then the village name is dropped. E.g. the Josephshöfer, not the Graacher Josephshöfer.
  

• Trier-Avelsbach village: "At (rare) best, lovely, delicate wines...perfumed."
  
• Piesporter Goldtröpfchen: "famous for honeyed wines with magical fragrence and breadth, which, thanks to the deep clay-like slate here, exude almost baroque aromas."
  
• Brauneberger Juffer-Sonnenuhr: "100 years ago reckoned to be the greatest wine of the Mosel, perfectly satisfying the taste for wine that was full bodied and golden."
  
• Bernkastel village: "The trademark of Bernkastel is a touch of flint."
  
• Wehlen villiage: "grown on shallow, stony slate --rich and filigree."
  
• Graach village: "grown on deeper, heavier slate --a more earthy, mineral distinction."
  
• Erdener Prälat: "probably the warmest vineyard in the entire Mosel valley."
  
• Erdener Treppchen: "more austere."
  

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I would love to write a whole book on the subject some day, but only about 100 people would buy it.

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Maybe you can fill it with beautiful photos of the Mosel and recipes of local French-German dishes, and make it a high end coffee table book - sort of in the food travel category. That seems to be how Bordeaux: People, Power and Politics was published - it is actually a fairly technical book on the structure of the high end bordeaux market disguised as a coffee table book so more people buy it.

As for my list itself- thanks for pointing out the omissions of Meulenhof and other wineries - I will add them; also some of the vineyards you mentioned where wineries source their grapes (e.g. Kesselstaat in the Doctor). Making the list involved time consuming internet research, especially when tying vineyards to producers; basically I entered the name of each vineyard and just looked at whose wines appeared. I am sure people will still find a few typos and errors yet.

As for the Gault-Millau rankings, they are mainly just an indication of relative reputation. I used it for lack of anything better. I think they have to constantly demote or promote wineries to keep it interesting, which might explain why the Grünhaus guys currently have only three stars. They seem to be especially harsh on old established wineries that may have been coasting for too long on their reputations.

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Thanks for putting this together. right to the printer for this one.

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I will keep posted. German wines are a real exciting learning area for me right now, especially since Mrs. Ormbee loves them, and allows a blank checkbook for them.

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Mrs. Ormbee must be related to Mrs. Rieslingfan.

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In good years, I buy the following Mosels:

Fritz Haag Brauneberger Juffer Sonnenuhr
Christoffel Urziger Wurzgarten
Christoffel Erdener Treppchen
J. J., Prum Wehlener Sonnenuhr
Reinhold Haart Piesporter Goldtropfchen
Selbach-Oster Zeltinger Sonnenuhr
Monchhoff Urziger Wurzgarten

These along with Donnhoff (Nahe), Leitz (Rheingau) and Darting (Pfalz) generally make up 80%-90% of my Riesling purchases.

I generally buy spatlesen and auslesen. In years like 2001 (where the wines are declassified) I will also buy Kabinetts (which are spatlesen parading as Kabinetts).

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Thanks again CB!!!

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