Mosel and Rhine River and Wineries and where to stay

If I were intent on driving, I might rent a car at whatever airport I land at. Which airport will you use? LUX, CGN, HHN, FRA are all options, depending on where you are coming from. From the states you'd probably use FRA, maybe LUX.

The part of the Mosel in question here lies roughly between Cochem and Bernkastel. The day cruise between Traben-Trarbach and Bernkastel is especially nice; The schedule (bottom/left) for T-T > Bernkastel and back offers 4-5 boats in each direction depending on day/month of travel:

https://www.moselrundfahrten.de/cams/clients/kolb/media/downloads/file_1.pdf?1713965549

Wineries do not typically have vineyard operations for tourists. You normally visit their in-town shops for tasting/purchasing.

An unusual venue for wine enthusiasts in Traben-Trarbach: https://www.traben-trarbach.de/en/underground2.html

The rail system in Germany is extensive, and I much prefer using it to driving. On our most recent visit we flew into FRA, caught a train to Koblenz from the airport, changed there for Bullay and Traben-Trarbach. You can track the final part of my train route from Koblenz, on the Rhine end of the Mosel, to Traben-Trarbach on this railway map. The map also shows how you would get to Traben-Trarbach from LUX.

We used the cruise boat to travel between Traben-Trarbach and Bernkastel. Alternatively, Bus 360 will drop you at any town you like between Traben-Trarbach and Bernkastel at nearly every hour of the day. Schedule:

https://download.transdev.de/transdev/uploads/moselbahn/schedule/403/linie-360-bernkastel-kues-wehlen-zeltingen-rachtig-losnich-krov-wolf-traben-trarbach.pdf

Base towns I've used on my visits include Bernkastel, Traben-Trarbach, Bullay and Cochem. These last two are convenient for visiting Trier and Burg Eltz, two very popular destinations for travelers in the area, as they lie on the main train route. The hiking and biking in the vicinity of Bullay is tops, but Bullay is a very quiet town with just a few places to stay... if you want more restaurants, shops, accommodation choices, and diversions, Cochem is a good spot. Both T-T and Bernkastel accommodate tourists on a similar scale. Cochem and Bernkastel (which is especially stunning) are the two most attractive towns on the river. Cochem puts you closest to Burg Eltz of all these towns.

What time of year are you looking at going? There are a number of wine festivals during the year, with a well known one the first weekend in September in Bernkastel-Kues. Always worth checking out events in the area for whatever time period you will be there.

Most of the wineries in the Mosel Valley are small mom-and-pop operations. We stayed in a Weingut a number of years ago in Briedel. The Weingut had 2 comfortable guest rooms with ensuite bathrooms, veranda, rental bikes and breakfast. The winery was in the basement with access to the street. The winery consisted of a tractor and cart to commute to the vines located remotely on the side of the hill. In the basement were a wine press, holding tanks, fermentation tanks and bottling machinery. The family lived on the upper floor, although the living room, also the "lobby" was on the main floor. If we wanted a bottle of wine, we just chose form the list in the room. If it was not available on the main floor, they just ran down to basement. and got one.

It was a September weekend and the next town over (Puenderich) had a weekend Strassenweinfest. These are great, with "marching bands" from Holland in wild costumes, and they played at various wine booths for glasses of wine. For a low alcohol drink, they had Federweisser, which barely fermented wine juice. Lots of food options.

The cost of the sty as the lowest price of 2 weeks in Germany.

One of the places I usually recommend to people who want to do some wine tasting is to go to the Rhein Wein Welt in Rüdesheim. For 12€, you get 10 chips to try 10 different wines. It is set up in the old Asbach factory right across from the train station. It is lots of fun to go to the 6 different rooms to try wines. Pick out the most expensive ones if you like. Their food is good too. All the wine is from the Rheingau, and you can see which winery or vineyard they are all from. Each winery is only allowed to have 2 wines here and I think they have 160 wines to sample.
https://www.rheinweinwelt.de/en/

If you are doing wine tasting, driving a car may not be the best way to get around.

Thank you all for your imput. It was most helpful.

You should also know that wineries here are not like Napa, many do not open to the public, or if they have a tasting room it's in town. For example, I like Christian Hirsch's wines (from near Heilbron). They make a lot of "California" style reds which are unusual in Germany and quite reasonable in price. Since I spent 8 years in Napa I prefer these to the more common, slightly sweeter, reds that are more common in this region. Their tasting room is a very small shop some distance from the vineyard. Dr Burklin Wolf, in Wachenheim (on the Wine Road) does have a large tasting room, but the town is small, parking is difficult, and it gets crowded, especially on weekend in the summer. But they have some world class whites.

My personal experience is the boat rides are nice for the scenery, but not especially convenient for getting to the wineries not in the cities they dock in and away from the crowds. Still, it's hard not to appreciate the combined offerings available in places like Rudesheim or Cochem.

I am right now sitting on the deck of our AirBnB in Enkirch, which is quite close to Traben-Trarbach. I am drinking a 7euro bottle of the local dry Riesling. We drove here from Wiesbaden, almost without stopping. Incredible drive. Cochem was overrun with tourists. We have not encountered other English speakers in this town so far. Hoping to get out on the river tomorrow from T-T, but who knows? My point is to take a look at the smaller towns in this area, as another poster recommended. You would be glad you did. Prost!