The white grape variety is a new variety between Riesling x Madeleine Royale. Some synonyms refer to the parentage Riesling x Sylvaner, which was wrongly assumed for a long time. Within the EU, names such as Riesling-Sylvaner, for example, are no longer permitted. The most important are Müller, Müller-Thurgau Rebe, Müller Thurgau Weiß, Weißer Müller-Thurgau (Germany); Müller-Thurgau Blanc (France); Uva di Lauria (Italy); Riesling-Silvaner, Riesling x Silvaner, Riesling-Sylvaner (New Zealand, Switzerland); Rivaner (Austria, Luxembourg), Rizlingszilvani (Hungary), Rizvanac, Müller-Thurgau Bijeli, Rizvanac Bijeli (Croatia); Rizanec, Rizvanec (Slovenia); Muller Thurgau White (USA).
Determination of parentage
Determining the parentage of the Silvaner took decades until 1996, when the repeatedly disputed paternity of the Silvaner proved to be false. grower was the Swiss Dr Hermann Müller-Thurgau (1850-1927) from Tägerwilen in the canton of Thurgau. He worked from 1867 to 1890 at the Royal Training Centre for Fruit and Viticulture in Geisenheim (Rheingau). In issue no. 26 of the magazine "Der Weinbau" from 24 June 1882, he formulated the breeding goal: "How important a grape variety could become for some wine-growing regions, for example, that combined the delicious characteristics of the Riesling grape with the safe and earlier ripening time of the Sylvaner." Until 1890, the preliminary testing of the new varieties resulting from the breeding of Riesling x Silvaner still took place in Geisenheim.
In 1891, Hermann Müller-Thurgau was called back to his home town of Wädenswil in the canton of Zurich to found and establish the Federal Institute based on the Geisenheim model. He sent 150 of the seedlings he had pre-tested in Geisenheim to Wädenswil. There, Heinrich Schellenberg (1868-1967) selected the best seedling no. 58 and propagated it in 1897 as "Riesling x Silvaner 1". The Bavarian court councillor August Dern (1858-1930), a former employee of Müller-Thurgau in...
