Prepping for the Rhineland


• By Allen Dale "Ole" Olson   |   Wednesday, July 14, 2010 at 2:51 pm   |     |   Print   |   Permalink

The most pleasant weather in western Europe north of the Alps is in September and October. If you need proof of that,  just check the quality of wine harvests, nearly always good, seldom bad, almost never really bad. So once again, I plan to visit the Rhineland for a look at the 2010 harvest during those months.

To be sure I’ll head for Alsace and search out my favorite Rieslings and Gewurztraminers in Turckheim, Riquewihr, and Eguisheim and experience along with them the cuisine of the Haeberlins and the Gaertners in Illhauesern and Ammerschwihr. But I will also cross the Rhine and get into vineyards whose bottles seldom reach our shores and when they do, there are too few of them to go around.

The Baden Region is home to the Black Forest and to some beautiful vineyards and some very fine wines. And most of the wines are from grape varieties we don’t find very often if at all in our retail stores. Truth be told, some 60 or 70 years ago those varieties weren’t found much in Germany either. The Muller-Thurgau grape is a cross between Riesling and Silvaner. Created by Professor-Doctor Hermann Muller-Thurgau in 1882 in the Rheingau laboratory in Geisenheim, it is the first fine wine variety developed scientifically.

The grape had a difficut birth and a controversial history. Riesling lovers scorned it. In 1891 Muller-Thurgau took his baby to Switzerland where it underwent additional transformations. A dozen years later, Professor August Dern took the Swiss cuttings back to Germany and named the variety Muller-Thurgau to honor the botanist who created it.

In the 1960s, when I first met the grape, viticulturalists and serious consumers were still debating both its origin and its value. Subsequent research has confirmed its origin, and subsequent experience with the elegant, palatable, harmonious, and mild wines has caused Muller-Thurgau to be the most widely-planted grape variety in Germany. Purists still contend it is too mild to be a fine wine, but day-to-day consumers (like me) find it exceptionally easy to live with. And it hasn’t hurt the Muller-Thurgau grape that it ripens much earlier than either of its parents, the Riesling (mother) and Silvaner (father).

So for several days I shall savor this cross-breed and compare it with the splendid Rieslings from the Rheingau and the delicious Silvaners from Franconia and return, then, to Alsace for the French take on the same grapes. Naturally, I will also sample some of the crossings done by Professor Georg Scheu, who reversed the parentage to create the Scheurebe grape; however, that’s another story.

To prepare for this autumn undertaking, I shall probably search in vain for Badner Muller-Thurgau wines  in America, because our wholesalers either can’t or won’t get them and focus instead on the delicate and slightly sweet Rieslings from the Mosel.  Good wines, certainly, but I long for a Badner — dry, off-dry, sweet, and all the variations. Zum Wohl!

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