Müller Thurgau is a white grape variety with a relatively recent history. It was created in 1882 by the Swiss winemaker Hermann Müller, originally from the canton of Thurgau, who crossed the Rhine Riesling and Madeleine Royal varieties while teaching at the prestigious Geisenheim winemaking school. From the beginning of the 20th century, it spread with increasing success throughout Germany, Switzerland, Austria and Italy, especially in South Tyrol and the Cembra Valley. Today, its vinification produces a very fragrant dry white wine with a fresh, round and delicate taste, characterised by a natural elegance that is appreciated particularly by a very refined female clientele.
Müller Thurgau is a white grape variety with a relatively recent history. It was created in 1882 by the Swiss winemaker Hermann Müller, originally from the canton of Thurgau, who crossed the Rhine Riesling and Madeleine Royal varieties while teaching at the prestigious Geisenheim winemaking school. From the beginning of the 20th century, it spread with increasing success throughout Germany, Switzerland, Austria and Italy, especially in South Tyrol and the Cembra Valley. Today, its vinification produces a very fragrant dry white wine with a fresh, round and delicate taste, characterised by a natural elegance that is appreciated particularly by a very refined female clientele.
The crossbreeding that led to the creation of this grape variety was first developed in 1882 by a Swiss professor who called himself Thurgau Müller in honour of his homeland, the Swiss canton of Thurgau. He taught at the prestigious Geisenheim wine school, which had been established just ten years earlier but quickly became an advanced and experimental centre for viticulture and enology. It was the time of great disasters such as phylloxera and powdery mildew, which were destroying Europe's vineyard heritage, forcing the various institutions to make huge investments aimed at finding solutions and creating new varieties.
This white grape variety was born from a laboratory cross between the famous Rhine Riesling and the Madeleine Royale, a German table grape used mainly for ornamental purposes, characterised by an early growing cycle and able to reach maturity early. The name refers to the feast of St. Magdalene on the 22nd of July. This unusual hybrid gave rise to an early-ripening vine, ideal for cultivation in colder regions and at higher altitudes.
The first vines were planted in 1890, and when the professor returned home the following year, he brought with him around 150 new seedlings to cultivate in Switzerland, helping to spread the species. In the meantime, the cultivation of this white grape spread throughout Germany under the name Rivaner, from the mistaken belief that it was derived from the Riesling and Sylvaner varieties. During the 20th century, it spread to Austria and Eastern Europe bearing the name of its inventor.
In Italy, it began to spread after the Second World War, first in the Veneto region, in the Conegliano area, then in Trentino-South Tyrol, Lombardy, Piedmont and various cold hillside areas. Among these, Sicily is also noteworthy, with its vineyards in Erice and Ribera. The best Müller Thurgau is nowadays produced in the Cembra Valley in Trentino, and above all in South Tyrol, in the territories of Terlano and the Isarco Valley. Here the vine seems to have found its ideal habitat. A habitat that, combined with the vision and expertise of many local producers, gives rise to elegant, refined and mineral expressions. These include Tiefenbrunner's 'Feldmarschall', from a single vineyard of rare beauty at an altitude of over 1,000 metres, as well as Müller Thurgau Terlano, a simple, clear and expressive wine from one of the areas best suited to the cultivation of this type of grape.
In order to understand the great success of this vine worldwide, it is enough to consider that between 1970 and 1990 it was the most widely cultivated vine in Germany, that it is still present in several European countries and that 15 different clones have been identified to date. The fame of this grape variety has outlived that of its brilliant and ingenious inventor, known to connoisseurs as one of the greatest botanists and enologists of all time, whose name is immortalised by the grape he created and helped to spread around the world.
Müller Thurgau wines have become famous in Europe for their pleasant, delicate, subtle and fragrant aromatic profile as well as their distinct elegance. As this grape variety is mainly cultivated in the most ventilated hilly regions at often high altitudes, the whites produced are always characterised by a good freshness and, very often, an appealing minerality.
These white wines are pale straw yellow in colour, crystalline and luminous, and immediately express the purity and airy atmosphere of the high hills from which they come. The aromas express a great pleasantness of white fruit and wildflowers, with delicately vegetal nuances. The taste is fresh, immediate, clear and very harmonious.
It can be paired with delicate fish dishes and proves to be the perfect match for hors d'oeuvres, appetizers and inviting aperitifs, as an elegant and refined alternative to sparkling wines. Their pleasant, fresh, immediate and fragrant personality makes them extraordinarily popular with women, which is why they are an unbeatable ally for successful candlelight dinners and romantic moments. In any case, there is always a perfect opportunity to drink a great expression of this grape variety and discover the different Müller Thurgau pairings.
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