Editing Moselle (section)

=== Wine ===
[[File:Moselle River Valley at Wormeldange, Luxembourg from Germany (5002564954).jpg|thumb|right|200px|The Moselle in [[Wormeldange]], [[Luxembourg]], [[Vineyard|vinyard]]s for grape production can be seen on the hill in the background]]
The [[Moselle wine region|Moselle winegrowing region]] lies along the Moselle with a cultivated area of about {{cvt|10540|ha}}. The largest part, currently just under {{cvt|9000|ha}}, is on German soil in the states of [[Rhineland-Palatinate]] and [[Saarland]]; the Luxembourg part has an area of about {{cvt|1300|ha}} (see [[Wine in Luxembourg]]). Upstream on the Moselle the vineyards extend into France as far as [[Seille (Moselle)|Seille]] in the region of [[Côtes de Moselle]] with an area of {{cvt|130|ha}} and to the region around [[Toul]] ([[Côtes de Toul]]) covering {{cvt|110|ha}}.

The German Moselle wine region, including its tributaries, bears the growing and manufacturing name of "Mosel". For marketing reasons the agricultural authorities of the region have divided it into six winegrowing areas.<ref name="HerkBez" /> The wine literature and specialist press, by contrast, divide the region into four areas based on geomorphological, micro-climatic and also historical reasons:

; '''Upper Moselle''': The valley sides of the [[Upper Moselle]] (also called the Burgundy Moselle, ''Burgundermosel'') with their overwhelmingly [[muschelkalk]] soils belong geologically to the so-called [[Paris Basin]], which explains its low proportion of [[Riesling]] – only around 10% in 2010 – and the increasing cultivation of [[Pinot Blanc]] and [[Pinot Noir]] grapes.

; '''Trier Region''': Around the city of [[Trier]] and in the valleys of the [[Saar (river)|Saar]] and [[Ruwer wine|Ruwer]] with their side valleys, the Riesling is the predominant grape on the shale soils, with over 80% of the crop. One climatic feature of this area is the frequent orientation of often small southwest-southeast facing locations in which the vegetation is exposed to stronger, cooler winds and, especially in the light of recent global warming, often achieve lower degrees of maturity than in the narrow, often deeply incised valley of the [[Middle Moselle|Middle]] and [[Lower Moselle]].<ref name="PigottLüer" />

; '''Middle Moselle''': With around {{cvt|6000|ha}} of vineyard the [[Middle Moselle]] is the largest winegrowing area of the Moselle. According to the wine experts and trade, the "greatest" wines of the Moselle, both in quantity and quality, are grown here on land that has been consolidated into large concerns with much vaunted steeply sloped vineyards.<ref name="DDeckers" />

; '''Lower Moselle''': In the [[Lower Moselle]] Valley, there are a number of medieval castles, high above little villages, decorated with [[timber-framed house]]s, surrounded by steep slopes with small terraces in the narrow, winding valley. Here, cultivating vines is very labour-intensive and costly and it is difficult to make it economical. As a result, it is common for vineyards to fall into ruin here.

The wine industry on the German Moselle has been declining for decades. In 2005, statistics showed there were {{cvt|10375|ha}} of vineyard; by 2012 this had fallen to just {{cvt|8491|ha}}.<ref name="StLRP" /> The vineyards that have fallen fallow are mostly those on extremely steep hillsides. There has been a major decline in the number of so-called ''Nebenerwerbswinzer'' (vintners for whom it is a secondary occupation), and the small, family farming operations that, until the end of the 1960s formed the majority of wine businesses. Comparative figures by the Chamber of Agriculture for Rhineland-Palatinate for several wine villages on the Lower Moselle show that there were still 797 wine businesses in the early 1960s, but by the early 2000s there were only just under 100.

There has been the opposite trend amongst the established traditional wine estates and more recent vintners with a sound education in [[oenology]] and business management, who have increased their business through the reclamation of once renowned, but long forgotten sites. The end of the 20th century saw the rediscovery of the use of special [[terroir]]<ref>Reinhard Löwenstein, ''Vom Öchsle zum Terroir'', Frankfurter Allgemeine newspaper No. 232, 7&nbsp;October 2003 and ''Die Zukunft liegt im Terroir'', in the same paper dated 17&nbsp;December 2005</ref> in order to improve quality and value, which has led to a more nuanced view of Moselle wine that, a few years before, had been characterised by overproduction, label scandals and cheap offers.