Wine: Besigheimer Felsengarten Müller-Thurgau

This is an interesting wine. The Müller-Thurgau grape is hardly grown in Württemberg, so I was surprised to see it offered by the Besigheimer Felsengarten. It's a grape that I associate with the central German regions of Rhein-Hessen and Pfalz.

It's a grape created in 1882 in Switzerland by Hermann Müller from Thurgau by crossing Riesling and Silvaner grapes. The resulting grape tastes similar to Riesling, but it ripens earlier in the season, making it less vulnerable to early frost. Ironically, the vines themselves are less hardy than Riesling. The harsh frost of 1978-1979 wiped out the Müller-Thurgau vines in Baden and Württemberg. Since then vintners have been reluctant to plant them again, which is why it's a rare grape in Württemberg.

Müller-Thurgau is well known outside of Germany as the grape used in the Blue Nun wine, which can be found in most British and American supermarkets. It's a sweet white wine which I personally find disgusting, despite its general popularity. When people in England talk about German wine, they're talking about Blue Nun. Serious wine connoisseurs reject Blue Nun, so they assume that all German wines are bad.

There's another common German wine in Britain called Liebfraumilch. This isn't a protected brand name, it's a type of wine, so it can vary greatly depending on where it was produced. Most brands of Liebfraumilch are a cuvée of Riesling and Müller-Thurgau in varying percentages. The only thing common to all brands of Liebfraumilch is that it tastes sweet, though not quite as sweet as Blue Nun.

Theoretically, it's possible to make a dry wine from Müller-Thurgau grapes. In practise, this is rarely done. In Germany it's considered a sweet wine, so it would confuse customers to offer them a dry variation.

It's been many years since I last tasted Blue Nun, but today I could recognise the similarity. Müller-Thurgau has a distinctive taste. Maybe some wine drinkers would appreciate the wine that I drank today. Besigheimer Felsengarten only sells good wines, after all, but it's not for me. I'm not arrogant enough to call it a bad wine, but it tastes bad to me.