Truttiker Essentia

This is a sweet wine from Switzerland made from the Muller-Thurgau grape. Although called Riesling-Sylvaner in Switzerland, it is now thought that Riesling was crossed with Madeleine Royale rather than Sylvaner to give this grape. Although productive, Muller-Thurgau needs careful site selection and yield restriction to give good results. That has led Jancis Robinson to describe it as "decidedly mediocre but gruesomely popular", the latter especially in the replanting of vineyards after WWII. A good example of a fine Muller-Thurgau is made by Pojer and Sandri from northern Italy.

I found that I had encountered this wine (2001) a number of times, because the KCC Wine Society had a case or two and we had it for several occasions in 2004 and 2005. A golden tea colour, dried apricot, peach, raisins and prunes variously figured in the descriptions of its nose. Sweet in varying degrees (due I suspect to what we were tasting before) from sweet to nearly cloyingly so, apricot and raisin notes were found on the palate, with dried apricot or prune notes accompanying the acidity to its finish.