Wine tasting on the Rhine and Mosel Rivers in Germany

I haven't specifically done it, but both the Rhine and Mosel sounds like a tall order for one day. By the way, if you didn't yet know (not sure how long you've been over here), you live pretty close to the Deutsche Weinstrasse. Bad Dürkheim hosts a huge wine festival every fall. Over here on my side of the Rhine, there are a ton of vintners along the Bergstrasse.

It took us two days to travel the length of the Mosel from the Rhine to Trier. We didn't do a lot of sightseeing, just stopping for lunch or coffee/beer and a quick march around some of the villages. Burg Elz and Cochem take most of a day alone if you're inclined to see them. You really need 4/5 days to do the Mosel justice. The road winds along the river and you can't average more than about 70 kil.per hour, even less if you get stuck behind a lorry! Personally I would limit myself to one or other river, but then I do like to take it easy.

Thanks for that info; I'll give KD a call tomorrow.
We do plan on doing the Rhine and Mosel on different days. :-) James, do you have any recommendations on Berkastel-Kues as to hotels/restaurants?? Thanks.

Regular K-D "Nebensaison" service on the Rhein ended 24 Oktober. I believe there might be a smaller line still running. Or, as James mentioned, you might find a special trip with advance booking on K-D. What's the purpose of the wine tasting? Unless you are buying a case or more, and want to make sure you like the flavor, just "taste" some wines at a restaurant at lunch and dinner. I went to one Mosel winery. For three Euro, he gave me four samples, each a little more than ¼ glass. There were two varieties, one a Riesling, from two different years. What a difference a year makes. I liked one variety from one year and the other variety from the other year. The other two, not so much. If I went to the next town, things might change. One the other hand, I had three wines, all different, all good, at lunch in Bernkastel.

If you do find a cruise from Bingen, be careful. The boat docks are near the Bingen Stadtbahnhof. That's probably where you'll leave your car. Only the milk run trains, MRB, stop at the Bingen Stadtbahnhof. Most of the other trains, particularly from Koblenz, are REs or ICs. They only stop at Bingen Hbf, across the Nahe River from the Stadtbahnhof. It's quite a trek from the Hbf to the Stadtbahnhof (there are some buses if you know the schedule and where to catch them).

Here are two "you'll NEVER regret it" stops on the Mosel. Kriebs http://www.kriebs.de/en/wine-tavern/offers.html is great. We toured the vineyard, tasted all his wines, then returned to the hof and had a great dinner. They even opened the shop across the street just for us to shop. Next is Weingut Kroth - www.weingut-kroth.de (sorry, couldn't get it linked). This family has been in business since 1503. Bart speaks perfect English and will even package and ship wine to the US. All tastings are free and bottle prices are more than reasonable. Also, since you'll be on the Rhine, if you happen to be near the Nahe river you may also want to check out Weingut Hoehn-Zimmerman in Langenlosheim.

Thank you for all the info on the wineries - that's what we need to know! I think we'll do a short section of the Mosel for one day with an overnight in possibly Bernkastel-Kues...and we'll do the Rhine cruise (if I can book it) for another day with an overnight in a town along the boat's route. And yes, we are looking to buy wine as we go. :-)

I have a suggestion for staying on the Mosel. This summer we stayed in Zell an der Mosel, at a small castle in the center of town (Hotel Schloss Zell). We purposely picked Zell instead of one of the more well-known towns, in order to get a little breathing space from the tourists. It was just as beautiful as the other towns. The manager of the hotel was so pleasant when I was making reservations and when we arrived. She brought us a complimentary glass of wine, which we drank under a grape arbor. We enjoyed it so much that we stayed put at the table for dinner, which was all fresh, local, and excellent food. We had a two-story loft in one corner of the castle, all freshly renovated and of course very clean. We walked up and down the pathway along the river, through the town and the vineyards, and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. Highly recommended!

Here is how our trip went! We drove to the parking lot in Bingen near the Stadt Bahnhof and parked the car, then took a 10:10 a.m. KD riverboat to St. Goar. We had called the previous day & made a reservation that was supposedly for one trip from Bingen to St. Goar & then another boat to take us to Boppard. I guess the KD boat line did not have enough interest as that second boat was canceled. We disembarked at St. Goar & walked 50 meters where we had a wonderful lunch on the terrace at Hotel Zum Goldenen Löwen (Golden Lion) restaurant overlooking the Rhine. We then walked a very short distance up the hill to the Bahnhof where trains were running almost hourly to to our next destination, Koblenz. We got off at the Hauptbahnhof and took a taxi (cost about 7 Euros for 4 people) to Hotel Haus Morjan which is right on the promenade overlooking the Rhine river. This hotel has adjustable beds, balconies, and our room was more spacious than most German hotel rooms. Our only complaint was the train noise from across the river. We chose this hotel in order to be close to the Winninger Winestube which was right next door - highly recommended. The next day we took a taxi back to the Bahnhof and took a train down to Bingen where we retrieved the car & took a car ferry across to Rudesheim.

Continuing my message:
We checked into Hotel Altdeutsche Weinstube, which was interesting to find! We unloaded our luggage up the hill a short distance from the hotel and walked to the hotel as it is on a very narrow cobblestone street. They did have a parking lot nearby - so we just left the car there. We walked around the quaint town & Drosselgasse where every shop owner was decorating for their upcoming Christmas Market. We taxied over to Schloss Johannisberg where we tasted wine and purchased several boxes to take home. Afterward, we had a wonderful dinner at the Altdeutsche Weinstube. Because it is off-season, we had a wonderful time in Rudesheim! Next: Bernkastel-Kues on the Mosel where we stayed at a wonderful hotel, Doctor-Weinstuben. There was a French festival set up in the Market square where we tasted French wine and had bread, cheese, meats, vegetables all from the Burgundy region of France for our lunch. We drove back to Kaiserslautern (home) via Trier - we drove by and viewed the Roman ruins in a quick fashion as we did not have much time left. Thank you everyone for your ideas - I will save them for our next tour of the Rhine & Mosel rivers.