Like a Bridge Over.... the Troubled Mosel Wine Region....!

Its on again...its off again. I am referring to the highway and bridge in the Mosel. Could not help it, but it made me think of the hugely popular song recorded and released by Simon and Garfunkle in 1969. So just to remind you what a great song it was......watch this video.



                                                                                                                   
As reported by Decanter back in April, the work on the Mosel bridge had been halted indefinitely.
Ooops....here is a little stronger language expressed by Sarah Washington writing an article for Jancis Robinson.
With an equally strong language in a follow up article by Sarah on the failure by the Green Party to make good on a pre-election promise to have the project cancelled.

I decided to contact Johannes Selbach to get his opinion on the Mosel Bridge. I had met Johannes a few years back while he was on a visit to Victoria. I had the opportunity at that time to taste his really impressive wines.

I quote Johannes' opinion on the subject.
 

"As far as the bridge goes: indeed there seem to be some missing number for the statics calculation of some of the pillars and this has caused a temporary moratorium. Unfortunately, this will be relatively easy to remedy by providing new calculations of the stability of the pillars which will have the work commence again.

I would be very happy if these were serious enough problems to completely halt the construction of the bridge but I’m afraid this isn’t more than a dream."

Meanwhile back to Sarah's article and I quote again.

 " Envy forged from mistrust is the backbone of German society and therefore politics. Or is it caused by rotten politics? " 

Why do I quote Sarah? Because it points out the basic difference between the German approach and the Italian way of looking at a similar situation.

A year ago I had the great pleasure of visiting Liguria or as the Brits like to call it, the Italian Riviera. I was the guest of my cousin Ton and his wife Thea from Amsterdam. They have a delightful place in Finale Ligure and they flew me down to visit. Could not stay away from wine and vineyards too long, so Ton drove me to a local vineyard where he buys his wines while staying in Finale Ligure. In my next post I want to get into more details about that visit and focus on the Vermentino grape variety.

 

The A10/E80 Highway goes right through the vineyards. This major highway starts in France and continues in the North West of the Italian Riviera.

In the upper picture the house and winery show just at the right hand  top of the picture. In the lower left hand corner of the lower picture you can see the railing of the patio sundeck. ( click on the pictures to enlarge them)

 Now, how is that for having some bridge and highway cutting through your vineyards? I asked the owner/winemaker his opinion on this and what if anything the locals had tried to do about this before construction.                                                                 

Domenico looked at me and with a shrug of his shoulders asked 'What can you do about it? Now tell me what do do think of my wines?'

Awesome!!! my reply.

Oh, yes, that is the highway and bridge showing in the  background. 

And that is the difference between the German way and the Italian way