{"podcast":{"title":"Vininspo! podcast","slug":"vininspo-podcast-7294502","podcast_index_feed_id":7294502,"rss_url":"https://api.substack.com/feed/podcast/4111444.rss","website_url":"https://edmerrison.substack.com/podcast","image_url":"https://substackcdn.com/feed/podcast/4111444/b5320a104bbe27e40feb594c508e8567.jpg","author":"Ed Merrison","episode_count":58,"summary":"A weekly multimedia newsletter in plain English about connection through wine—linking nature, time, place and people—to unlock its meditative, restorative, inclusive and expansive potential and brighten the experience of anyone with the vaguest interest.","last_synced_at":"2026-07-31T10:17:16.011163+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/vininspo-podcast-7294502"},"episode":{"title":"[Vininspo! Alt. Format] How harvest happens at Dr Loosen","slug":"vininspo-alt-format-how-harvest-happens-at-dr-loosen","published_at":"2026-05-01T06:34:21+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/vininspo-podcast-7294502/vininspo-alt-format-how-harvest-happens-at-dr-loosen","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/vininspo-podcast-7294502","url":"https://edmerrison.substack.com/p/vininspo-alt-format-how-harvest-happens-at-dr-loosen","audio_url":"https://api.substack.com/feed/podcast/196054493/cd98717456d2a02e3916f30a5dad00d9.mp3","summary":"Ernst Loosen is one of the most recognisable global figures in wine. This indefatigable ambassador for Mosel Riesling pops up all over the place to spread the gospel according to this most versatile of grapes. Dr Loosen has managed to pull off something special as a brand and a domaine: quality at scale and a range of grand-cru bottlings that faithfully express some of the planet’s most breathtaking sites without costing the earth. There’s plenty there to admire, but as a fan of German precision, I wanted to put a more practical question to Erni this time. Erni has been at the helm of the Dr Loosen estate in Bernkastel since the late 1980s. In his time in charge, he has revived lesser-known, ancient German customs by “innovating” with patiently raised, balanced dry wines while respecting the valley’s traditions with precisely delineated off-dry to lusciously sweet styles. When you take into account that Dr Loosen makes single-site wines from 11 grands crus spread across several villages and encompassing all Prädikats, the logistics get quickly complicated. I just wanted to know: Come vintage time, how the heck does he marshal his pickers to get it all done? What follows is the preamble to the podcast, so if you listen to that, you needn’t read this (although it may help familiarise you with place and category names). Similarly, the video below is the interview segment of the podcast, so if you’re reading this, watch that and ignore the podcast. Got it?! The Mosel Valley is in Germany’s west. It’s named after the Mosel River, which rises as the Moselle in the Vosges mountains in France. In Germany, it twists its way up to join the Rhine River at Koblenz. The Upper Mosel, or Obermosel, crosses the border into Germany and winds its way up to the city of Trier. Around here…","meta_description":"Ernst Loosen is one of the most recognisable global figures in wine. This indefatigable ambassador for Mosel Riesling pops up all over the place to spread…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":1843,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/vininspo-podcast-7294502/episodes/vininspo-alt-format-how-harvest-happens-at-dr-loosen/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/vininspo-podcast-7294502/vininspo-alt-format-how-harvest-happens-at-dr-loosen.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}