The unanimous view was that the bridge will spoil the unique cultural landscape and the B50 road will endanger some of the best Riesling vineyards in the world. Hugh Johnson, world famous wine author and expert in wine culture, voiced his protest in a public speech at the site of the planned bridge above Ürzig. He said he is no enemy of bridges when they are necessary and of architectural interest. However, neither is the case with the planned "motorway on stilts" in the Mosel valley. In fact this bridge endangers something that is globally unparallelled and cannot be imitated, namely the Mosel wine from the steep wine mountain slopes between Bernkastel and Erden. He labelled the government plans a folly. In the run-up to the event further protests have been loudly heard from all over the world. The influential website slate.com from the Washington Post ran a detailed article heavily critical of the building project. During the press reception Dr. Manfred Prüm of Weingut J.J. Prüm stated that he had received a letter representing 2,000 members of a federation of friends of German wine from Japan which protested against the building of the motorway. The American wine expert Terry Theise said in a written statement that the Rieslings of the middle Mosel "constitute a symbol of Germany's contribution to the cultural heritage of humanity." His colleague David Schildknecht warned that in his opinion the building of the bridge makes future acknowledgement of the Mosel valley as a UNESCO World Heritage site an impossibility. At an evening event for invited guests in Ürzig the wine writer Stuart Pigott made impressively clear the unique position held by the wines of the middle Mosel. He said that this position must not be risked by the "voodoo economics" of the politicians responsible for the project. Hugh Johnson explained that altered water distribution to the vineyards caused by deeply sunk road trenches above will effectively deteriorate the perfect natural situation of the grapes. Deep in thought whilst viewing the proposed route of the road he said: "Of all the vineyards in the world, these would be the first ones I would save."