The Mittelrhein follows a 120 kilometre stretch of the Rhine gorge between Bingen and Bonn, the postcard section with the castles above the river. Vineyards cling to terraces on both banks wherever the slope faces the right way, cut into slate and held up by dry stone walls that take more work to maintain than the wine they support is worth.

That economics has shrunk the region steadily. Riesling accounts for about two thirds of what remains, and on these steep slate terraces it gives wines of real precision, taut and mineral in the Mosel manner. What keeps the vineyards alive now is largely the view: the gorge is a UNESCO World Heritage site and the tourists who come for the castles and the boat trips drink a good deal of the production on the spot. Bacharach and Boppard hold the best known sites.