The Cherry On Top: Bernkastel

From the outset of the Legendary Rhine and Moselle Cruise, our cruise manager Rick said this was his favorite of all the itineraries.

As he gave his pre-dinner description of the port of Bernkastel, he called it the "cherry on the cake." 

This elicited a few chuckles from the guests, although of course we all knew what he meant, and certainly he speaks English fluently while the rest of us couldn't say more than a word or two (if that) in his difficult-to-pronounce native tongue, Dutch.

He tried to correct it with other approximations like "icing on the cherry," and I have a feeling he might have stumbled once over the phrase on a previous cruise and, because it made the guests laugh, had now made it a regular part of his presentation.

In any case, he said Bernkastel was the perfect size, not a big city like Strasbourg or a small village like Riquewihr, neither kitschy like Rudesheim nor snobbish to tourists as some European cities can be.

When we arrived in Bernkastel the next day, we found exactly what Rick had promised: a mid-sized river town filled with beautiful timbered buildings that was not too busy nor certainly without life.

Our guided walking tour served primarily as an opportunity to snap photos accompanied by lighthearted narration about this village famous for its Wine Doctor.

The legend goes that in the 1300s, Archbishop Boemund II fell very ill, and everyone thought he would die, but the Archbishop began drinking Bernkastel wine.  When he made a full recovery, he said, "This wine is the true Doctor."

From that point on, people flocked to the town for the medicinal properties of the wine. 

Our walking tour ended at Doctor Pauly's wine cave, where we were treated to a morning wine tasting.  By this point in the trip, most of us may not have become accustomed to drinking wine in the morning but it certainly no longer felt like an entirely foreign suggestion.  We had become acclimated to life on the Rhine and Moselle.

Does the wine of the Bernkasteler Doktor, the most famous vineyard of the renowned Moselle Valley, really heal the sick?  Well, as the vintner who addressed us said, there are a lot more old wine makers than old doctors.

The incredibly steep hillsides on which the vineyard sits has been called the most expensive real estate in Germany due to the reputation of the Bernkasteler Doktor's grapes.

I have to say I found the regional wine served onboard the River Queen with dinner tastier to my palate.  Then again, keep in mind that I also like California's Sutter Home Sweet Red about as well as any wine, regardless of price or reputation.

I can definitely state that we thoroughly enjoyed our stay in Bernkastel and also the afternoon cruise on the scenic Moselle.