History and wines of the Brauneberg

A document from 1333 names the vineyard "Brunnenberg ex opposito Dusemont".

Only in 1925 is the village Dusmond (lat. "dulcis mons") identified with its famous vineyard and re-names itself "Brauneberg" with the additional intention of boosting the less well-known and inferior vineyard sites "Mandelgraben" and "Klostergarten", so as to market them as Braune-bergers....

The steep, totally southernly exposed Brauneberg hill lies alongside the Mosel river left bank from Kesten up to the mouth of the "Lieser" stream, and opposite the two villages Brauneberg and Mülheim. The name "Brauneberg" can be interpretated as a description of the colour of the iron-oxide in the slate stone, which gives a very noble flavour and elegant structure of the wines.

Christian von Stramberg, the great winewriter of the early 19th Century, reports in 1837: "Yet the appearance of the Brauneberg will easily draw the attention of anyone. Along the entire river there is no second hill comparable in its regular and gentle shape. What nature provided, viticulture was able to complete and there is no other place of such a steady and comprehensive winegrowing. The Brauneberg wines always used to be among the greatest and most noble wines from the Mosel. The vineyard has the most advantageous exposition to the south, the slate soil is light and the Riesling vine has therefore to be replanted more often. Nevertheless, all the quality-minded growers plant only Riesling vines."

The reputation of the Brauneberg is reported far back in history. In 591 AD the franconian king Childebert II. gave his state property "Molendinum" (Mülheim) to the Archbishop of Verdun "boni vini causa". Ist greatest and best vineyard was the Brauneberg. Thomas Jeffer-son, one of the fathers of the United States and her 3rd President (1801-1809), whose compe-tence and fame as connoisseur is still being reflected today by occasional auctions of bottles from his private stock, appreciated the Brauneberg wines as the best of those from the Mosel, which he had tasted when travelling through the Rhine and Mosel valleys in 1788.

1870 Cháteau Latour - arguably the finest Claret of the nineteenth century - was listed by S. H. Day & Co. of London in 1875 at £4,50 per dozen, while Brauneberg was £3,60 and Krug 1872 Vintage Champagne was only £3,15!

Many vineyard names on the Brauneberg hill itself disappeared over the years and today only the Brauneberger Juffer and - in its heart - the Brauneberger Juffer-Sonnenuhr remain. Such well-known names as Brauneberger Falkenberg, Hasenläufer and Bürgerslay were dropped and integrated into the Juffer. The name "Juffer" derives from the former ownership of a large section by the nearby Convent.

A title-deed of the 17th April 1643 is the oldest existing proof of the Max Ferd. Richter own-ership in the Brauneberg Riesling wines from the Brauneberger Juffer and Juffer-Sonnenuhr are rare and precious. Such wines were the first establish, and still carry the world wide reputation of the great wines from the Mosel. The productions costs in the steep slaty hills are high and the majority of work cannot be done by machinery and is still, as it has been through the centuries, hard manual work.