It used to be Germany's most popular grape due to its flexibility in the climates and soils in which it can be grown, and due to it's low acid and fruity flavour, the wine are supposed to be drunk young and were the backbone (although maybe a bit of a limp backbone) of the exceptionally popular Liebfraumilch and Piesporter wines of the 1970s.
It was also an incredibly popular grape in New Zealand at the same time, where the dominant producers Cooks, Corbans and Montana made a sweet Müller-Thurgau. That ended when Montana put down Sauvignon Blanc and found that it worked reasonably well, bought the other two companies and dug up all the Müller-Thurgau to plant their Loire sourced variety.
Northern Italy is a place that has some of this child of Riesling and Madeleine Royale planted and it was from the Alto Adige that I tried, what may have been, my first single varietal Müller-Thurgau.
2010 Girlan Müller Thurgau
Smells of the countryside on a hot summer day! Lots of wild flowers, herbs and sunshine mixed with a fresh citrus aroma. The palate is a little clay like, then cleans up with a chalky minerality and a bundle of grapefruit and grapes. There is a touch of still champagne about it. A simple bottle of wine, nice when chilled and worth the dozen or so pounds you will pay for it. 86pts
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