Location and landscape
Treis-Karden is a municipality on the Mosel in the district of Cochem-Zell in Rhineland-Palatinate. The town is around 13 kilometres from Cochem and 40 kilometres from Koblenz. The districts of Treis and Karden are located on opposite banks of the Mosel, where the valleys of Flaumbach and Dünnbach flow into the Mosel valley. Above Treis, the steeply sloping Zillesberg shapes the landscape.
Vine growing on the terrace Mosel
Treis-Karden belongs to the Lower Mosel, also known as the Terrace Mosel. On the steep, narrow vineyard terraces, dry-stone walls hold the areas under vine. Slate stores the heat of the favoured steep slopes and supports Riesling cultivation. For the area around Treis-Karden, clayey slate and greywacke are named as typical rocks; in the steep slopes of Treis, pure slate soils are also documented.
Vineyard sites and grape varieties
The official vineyard register assigns Treis-Karden to the Mosel wine-growing region and to the Burg Cochem area. In Karden, the individual sites Dechantsberg, Juffermauer and Münsterberg are located in the Großlage Goldbäumchen. In Treis, Greth, Kapellenberg and Treppchen belong to the Großlage Rosenhang. Riesling is the most important grape variety; a local winery lists it as accounting for 70 per cent of the planting in the steep slopes. Wines from slate slopes are described as fruity and mineral; in some cases Rieslings mature in oakwood barrels too.
History
Karden has more than 2,000 years of documented history. As a Roman vicus called Cardena, the place was already known; around 350 AD a Christian community was established there. From the Middle Ages until the secularisation in 1802, the provost of the Stift St. Castor in Karden administered an archdeaconry. Treis and Karden were united as a single municipality in 1969.
