A good Muller Thurgau from Italy

Thanks to AP for her photo. I first saw this in her Facebook album and added Jancis Robinson's description of the grape - decidedly mediocre but gruesomely popular. That is quite unfair for this wine, as this is one of the world's better specimens. Bred from Riesling and Madeline Royale (previously this parent was thought to be Sylvaner, hence some of its synonyms) by Herman Muller (from the Swiss canton of Thurgau) at Gesienheim in 1882, it is an early ripening, high yielding grape with less demands on site than Riesling. These qualities were particularly attractive in the post-war German struggling to rebuild a devastated wine industry. That helped the German wine industry turn out oceans of mediocre wine of the likes of Liebfraumilch.

In some well chosen sites, it does produce wines of note, such as in the mountains of northern Italy. Hugh Johnson reckons that the Feldmarschall by Tieferbrunner from 1000m high vineyards in the Alto Adige to be the best dry Muller Thurgau in the world. This wine from the Palai vineyard was first produced by Pojer and Sandri, in 1975 and caused a stir in the Italian wine world.