Muller Thurgau is a rare white grape on the Australian wine landscape, grown only in cooler regions such as Tasmania, the Snowy Mountains zone, Mudgee and Mount Barker in Western Australia's Great Southern Wine Region.
We all remember the German wine Liebfraumilch from our younger drinking years? You wouldn't want to or can't? Well, that was the Muller Thurgau grape in that watershed swill. Thank Bacchus and Dionysus things have changed for the better, that's all I've got to say!
The Muller Thurgau variety has been grown at the family-owned Galafrey Winery since its establishment in 1977, the oldest in the Mount Barker Region. Winemaker Kim Tyrer says that Mount Barker's cool climate made Muller Thurgau good to grow and popular owing to its uniqueness and approachability with food.
A unique, enjoyable and somewhat nerdy variety to take as an alternative white wine to impress or confuse your friends !
First bred by botanist Professor Hermann Muller from Thurgau, Switzerland in 1882, it was originally thought to be a cross between Riesling and the French table grape Silvaner. The grape was named after him in 1913. However, first botanical then only recent genetic analysis has discovered that it was a hybrid of Riesling and the obscure Madeleine Royale grape and not the original hybridised grapes. Also known as Rivaner, Muller Thurgau is believed to be the oldest successful new breed to be disseminated throughout the world.
The grape is widely grown throughout central and Eastern Europe but it was in Germany and England of all places, where the grape was responsible for kick-starting the redevelopment of each country's post war wine industry.
The Galafrey Muller is not a complex wine, made more for its quaffability than for anything else. It lacks the distinctive bouquet and acid associated with Riesling yet does have its own varietal character.
In the glass it is pale yellow in colour with musky, apple and nutmeg aromas predominating on the nose. Citrus and passionfruit notes on the palate with a mild acid backbone make this an easy dry medium bodied wine to drink with light fare.
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