It was spring 2022 when on a quick visit to Philip Lardot I first met Rosalie Curtin, or Rosa, while she was starting her internship with him in the Mosel. She had decided to temporarily move there to immerse herself more into European winemaking and Riesling in particular. Luck would have it that Cupid struck twice, as Rosa fell in love both with Philip and the Mosel, and soon she decided to stay. With her experience in the USA, she started working alongside Philip and in 2022 already crafted her first two wines: the Pinot Noir that would later be called Little Heart and a Riesling, to be released later.
That she would end up in wine had then been written in the stars for a while. While studying architecture, she worked in fine dining, where her interest in wine took root. Encouraged by mentors, she soon left both architecture and fine dining behind, drawn to the hands-on, physical side of winemaking—something that resonated with her background of manual labor, spending outdoors and time spent helping on a family friend’s cattle ranch at a young age.
In 2019, she joined Jess Miller of Little Crow Vineyards for harvest in Oregon, her first exposure to vineyard work and the rhythms of farming. By 2020, Rosa worked three harvests—New Zealand, Frenchtown Farms in California, and as an assistant winemaker at Maloof Wines in Oregon—gaining hands-on experience with old vines and learning the ins and outs of farm management.
Before moving to Germany, Rosa had already made her own wines, both on her own and with a close friend — a Pinot pet-nat, a field blend, and a direct-press Cabernet from California’s old vines. Her time with Frenchtown shaped her practical understanding of farming, while her time at Clos Saron, a pioneer in California’s natural wine movement, left her with formative experiences.
By the time she arrived in Mosel, Rosa had not only honed her craft but was already beginning to establish her identity as a winemaker, deeply connected to the vineyards she worked.
Since I've met Rosa I've felt a deep respect for the steps she has taken. Both in moving to Germany, and specifically the Mosel, from California, as in starting her own business and the powerful, determined way she carried herself through both.
See, the Mosel is no wine region for the fainthearted; it attracts a certain type of winemaker to settle in this beautiful, but notoriously difficult-to-work region. Its steep slopes on loose, slate soils are the main reason viticulture is even possible in a region this far North, however, they also make any work by machine or tractor impossible. Meaning that even simpler tasks such as leave plucking and spraying are physically way harder and more time-consuming than in other regions, whilst important jobs such as plowing are, in many vineyards, not possible at all.
Some call this type of winemaker a masochist, and while understandable and probably a little true, I see a different quality as being more important: the willingness to do the work. To be in those steep vineyards, day after week after month. To be okay with being alone with your thoughts for hours, to ponder, to be connected to your place. While this may sound simple, a lot of us city folk have (maybe temporarily) lost this ability. For these people, the Mosel can be an intimidating place. But for Rosa and Philip, this is the life they live and in which they see the deep beauty that the Mosel also offers if you are willing to do the work.
With the release of her first wine starts a journey for her to settle as a winemaker, to do the work, but also to carve out her little corner in this world of wine. If these first wines are anything to go by (and we think they are), the Mosel has found itself a new voice, and I'm excited for the story it will share.
- Markus (ASOP Wines)
