Cooking for dry Riesling. Mosel precision meets a kiss of spice.

The Mosel and Dr. Loosen

The Mosel's steep slopes and cool climate give Rieslings of extraordinary purity and freshness. Ernst Loosen's family has owned its estate for 200 years and makes only Riesling. He took over from his father about 30 years ago and, by his own account, had to rebuild the reputation of the house almost from scratch.

Passion is the word that keeps coming up. Ernst believes that in any profession, if you work with passion, you will be much better at it, and his energy in the kitchen proves the point.

He is just as clear about what he wants in the glass: extremes held in balance. A great wine, he says, should be complex yet show finesse, concentrated and full bodied yet elegant. Finding that is like searching for the holy grail, and in his whole career he has made only a handful of wines he felt came close.

Rediscovering dry Mosel Riesling

Dry Mosel Riesling sounds modern, but Ernst found its roots in his own family. His great-grandfather made only dry wines, very unusual for the area a century ago, and kept them in barrel on the full lees for years. When a customer brought him a dry 1947 Ürziger Würzgarten, still gorgeous after more than 60 years, Ernst told his winemaker they had to make wine like that again.

The wine he brings is a Graacher Himmelreich Grosses Gewächs, a dry Riesling from a top vineyard. Andreas loves its precision. Ernst also pours an Ürziger Würzgarten Reserve made the old way, with two years in barrel on the full lees and three more in bottle, from vines over 100 years old on their own roots. The Mosel still has many such pre-phylloxera vineyards, and Ernst notes that their wines cost far less than a Burgundy of similar depth.

Skrei with an Asian-inspired seafood sauce

For the dry Riesling, Andreas brines a loin of skrei, the prized winter cod from northern Norway, a Scandinavian trick that gives firmer, tastier flesh. The sauce starts like a classic French seafood white wine sauce, made with mussels, prawn shells and plenty of cream, but with an Asian twist of lemongrass, ginger, green chili, lime and cilantro. The fish is fried in a generous amount of butter and served with prawns, red onion and pak choi.

The pairing shows why Riesling is so flexible. Its crisp acidity cuts through the creamy sauce, and its fruit loves gentle ginger and lemongrass. Ernst calls the spicing just a kiss of Asian spices, which is the key: aromatic, not fiery.

Kabinett, Spätlese and the old traditions

Ernst asks Andreas what he thinks of the Mosel's off-dry styles, Kabinett, Spätlese and Auslese. Andreas calls them some of the most versatile wines in the world. Modern fine dining is full of sweet and sour flavors that clash with dry wine, and he always keeps a Kabinett in the fridge for Scandinavian dishes like pickled herring or gravlax with sweet mustard sauce, and for fusion food. They are low in alcohol too.

Ernst recalls an older tradition: mature Spätlese and Auslese served with game. Both remember memorable bottles with wild boar.

A red wine, tasted blind

Then Ernst brings one of his favorite wines, made by someone else. Andreas finds ripe red cherry, plum, vanilla and herbal spice, follows the trail to a herb, almond and Manchego crusted rack of lamb with a roasted piquillo pepper sauce, and shares his thinking along the way. Watch to see if his guess is right, and how Ernst does in the memory game.

Go furtherTo explore the estates, vineyards and wines of the Mosel and Germany further, the wein.plus wine guide is a great resource.