Muller Thurgau

Also known as Müller-Thurgau, Rivaner.

A white crossing bred by the Swiss botanist Hermann Müller (a native of Thurgau) in the late 19th century, aiming to combine Riesling's aromatic finesse with an earlier-ripening parent. For decades the second parent was assumed to be Sylvaner, but DNA profiling established it is in fact Madeleine Royale, a table grape — Riesling Renano x Madeleine Royale is the confirmed cross.

Introduced to Italy in the 20th century, it found one of its best expressions in the mountain vineyards of Trentino-Alto Adige (Val di Cembra, Terlano, Valle Isarco), where wide diurnal temperature swings and mineral, volcanic/porphyry soils sharpen its aromatic character, and spread from there into several of Veneto's own IGTs. Wines are pale straw-yellow with light green reflections, showing white flowers, white peach, green apple, sage and citrus on the nose, with a lean but harmonious structure, lively acidity, and a dry, mineral finish.

This dataset uses "Muller Thurgau" (no umlaut) as the canonical spelling — the form under which MASAF's own Registro Nazionale delle Varietà di Vite registers the variety (scheda 158, "Muller Thurgau B."), as documented directly in `data/denominations/valdadige.json`, whose own disciplinare text alternates between "Muller Thurgau" (Art. 2) and "Müller Thurgau" with umlaut (Art. 9). Of the nine Veneto denominations referencing this grape, only `delle-venezie.json` used the umlauted spelling in its `grapes[].name` field; it has been corrected here to the canonical form so all nine point to this single node.