A white grape of mild acidity and light aromatics. Early ripening and easy to grow, it spread widely across Germany and other cool regions. It lacks Riesling's tension but gives soft, approachable dry and off-dry wines.
Bred in 1882 at Geisenheim by Dr Hermann Müller, a native of Thurgau in Switzerland. Long held to be a Riesling × Silvaner cross, DNA analysis in the 1990s revealed the second parent to be Madeleine Royale. Planted en masse in post-war Germany, it once exceeded Riesling in area.
It asserts little, and so it never gets in the way of the food. Best well chilled as an aperitif or with starters. I sometimes use it as a dry entry point for guests who assume German wine is sweet.