Müller-Thurgau

Müller-Thurgau was created in 1882 by Hermann Müller, a Swiss scientist from the canton of Thurgau working in Germany, and it is the most consequential grape crossing ever made — not because it produces great wine, but because of what it did to German viticulture.

Müller was trying to combine Riesling's quality with earlier ripening. He believed he had crossed Riesling with Silvaner; DNA analysis in the 1990s established the second parent was actually Madeleine Royale. What he produced ripens two to three weeks before Riesling, crops heavily, and grows almost anywhere.

Those properties made it irresistible after the Second World War. By the 1970s it was the most planted grape in Germany, and it was the basis of the vast exports of cheap semi-sweet wine — Liebfraumilch and its relatives — that sold in enormous volume and destroyed the international reputation of German wine for a generation. German plantings have since halved.

The wine itself is soft and mild: peach, apple, elderflower and a light floral note, low acidity, light body, and a slightly grapey character. Made carelessly at high yields it is watery and forgettable, which is how most of it was made.

It has a genuine second life in the hands of growers who crop it hard. In Alto Adige, at high altitude, and among a small number of German and English producers, it makes a light, dry, floral wine with real charm — no one's idea of a great grape, but an honest one.