Silvaner

Silvaner is a grape with a remarkable parentage and a modest reputation. DNA analysis has established it as a natural crossing of Traminer — the ancestor of Gewurztraminer — with Österreichisch Weiss, an obscure Austrian variety, placing its origin somewhere in the Danube region rather than in Germany where it made its name.

It was once the most planted grape in Germany, overtaken by Müller-Thurgau in the 1970s and since reduced considerably. Its heartland is Franken, in the north of Bavaria, where it is bottled in the distinctive flat, round Bocksbeutel and treated as the regional speciality.

The wine is dry, medium-bodied and low in obvious aroma: green apple, pear, fresh herbs and a distinctly earthy, mineral quality. Acidity is moderate rather than high. What it does well is transmit soil — the limestone and Keuper marl of Franken produce recognisably different wines — and it has a savoury, almost vegetal character that makes it unusually good with food.

In Alsace it was long considered a lesser variety and was excluded from grand cru status until an exception was made for the Zotzenberg vineyard, which makes a strong case for the grape.

Alto Adige grows it at altitude in the Valle Isarco, producing a taut, precise, alpine style.

It is one of the classic examples of a grape whose quality depends almost entirely on yield. Cropped heavily it is watery; cropped hard on good ground it is serious.