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Mller-thurgauMller-Thurgau is a variety of white grape (sp. Vitis vinifera) created by Hermann Mller-Thurgau in 1882, and still used to make white wine in Germany, Northern Italy and England. Most grapes have been created from a desire to harness qualities in two separate grapes and to generate a new vine that combines the qualities of both. However, such attempts rarely succeed and the Mller-Thurgau grape is no exception. When Dr. Mller-Thurgau created the grape in the Geisenheim Institute in the late 19th century, he hoped that his cross-bred vine would combine the intensity and complexity of the Riesling grape with the ability to ripen earlier in the season that the Silvaner grape possesses. The fact that the resulting grape lacked both these qualities however was no obstacle in the grape being widely planted across many of the German wine-producing regions. By the 1970s, despite its inferiority to Riesling, one of the world's great grapes, Mller-Thurgau had become Germany's most-planted grape. This was due in part to the immense popularity of cheap, low quality, medium-sweetness German wines such as Liebfraumilch and Piesporter. Many of these vines were planted on flat areas that were not particularly suitable for wine growing but at the time it was more profitable than sugar beet the main alternative crop. The turning point in Mller-Thurgau's growth however was the winter of 1979, when on 1st January there was a sharp fall in temperatures, to -20°C in many areas, which devastated most of the new varieties, but did not affect the varieties such as riesling which have much more hardy stems, after hundreds of years of selection. In the decades since then that the winemakers have begun to redress the balance, and Mller-Thurgau is now less widely planted than riesling, although still significant. At its best, the grape is capable of a well-balanced fragrant wine, but in doing so requires a location that would have produced a superior Riesling wine. Recent DNA fingerprinting has in fact shown that the grape was created by crossing Riesling with Chasselas de Courtillier, not Silvaner. The consumer backlash against it means that it is rarely declared on the label (some winemakers call it Rivaner in Germany, others simply do not mention the grape variety). Even Blue Nun liebfraumilch is now made of 30% riesling rather than entirely Mller-Thurgau. Outside of Germany, the grape has achieved a moderate degree of success in producing lively wines in Italy, southern England (where most other grapes will not ripen in many years), and Luxembourg (where it is called Rivaner).
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