Show Notes
Episode 155: Aromatic Dry White Wines: Müller-Thurgau! 00:00
Hello! And welcome to The Wine Pair Podcast. I’m Joe, your sommelier of reasonably priced wine, and this is my wife and my wine pairing partner in crime, Carmela. And we are The Wine Pair!
If you are new to our podcast, here is a quick orientation! Each week, we explore a different wine varietal or blend — like Picpoul or Valpolicella or Müller-Thurgau (mew-ler tour-gow) — and dive into just what these wines are, what makes them special, and why finding new wines to learn about is so gosh darn cool. Our goal is to help you expand your wine knowledge in a fun way that is understandable and accessible to regular people, not just wine nerds! We also taste and review 2-3 wines under $25 each, and share our scores and recommendations to help you find great wines without breaking the bank. So, thank you so much for joining us! And, we are proud to say that Decanter Magazine calls us fun, irreverent, chatty, and entertaining.
And, I also just want to say, for the record, we are not AI. Ok?!? I am worried that it is going to be harder and harder to tell the people from the bots, but we ain’t no damn robots.
Ok, Carmela, we are back with a wine tasting and review episode after taking another break last week so we could share one of our interviews, and so this week we are going to do something new that was suggested to us via a DM on Instagram from Riccardo who said he would love for us to try aromatic dry white wines, and so here we are today with a specific aromatic white wine called Müller-Thurgau, which I am excited to potentially add to our list of go-to white wines, but also, I am excited to learn more about what aromatic dry white wines are. Are you?!?
Aromatic white wines are defined as those that are intensely fragrant, as you would guess, and are often described as floral, fruity, or herbal. These wines come from grape varieties that as you also might guess, higher levels of aromatic compounds, and in particular the aromatic compound we are most interested in is called terpenes. That’s kind of a fun word, terpenes. Almost as much fun as Müller-Thurgau!
So, you might ask, what are terpenes and what makes them special? Terpenes are chemical compounds, and they are responsible for many of the floral and herbal aromas in wines, and they are generally found in grape skins. Specific terpenes can give very distinct aromas like rose, geranium, and orange. And different grapes will have different concentrations of these chemicals. To get even more nerdy and more technical, monoterpenes are a subgroup that produces fruity and floral aromas, like linalool which is what gives roses their rosey smell.
Kind of cool, huh? I bet you never knew that. And you can wow your friends the next time you are at a dinner party by saying - holy cow, get a whiff of the terpenes on this baby!
Winemaking techniques can either mask or enhance these aromas. For instance, the use of oak can really tamp down on the impact of terpenes, while cool fermentation, using stainless steel rather than oak, or avoiding malolactic fermentation which is where malic acid is converted to lactic acid which reduces the overall acidity of wine and makes it creamier and smoother - can also help to unmask or let loose the terpenes. I think this is one of the reasons why we like unoaked Chardonnay more - there are more aromatics in the wine.
There are a number of grape varieties that are more likely to create aromatic wines because they have the highest concentration of these terpenes, and some of those grape varieties are
So, here’s the deal. In many cases, you may have been drinking aromatic dry white wines and never knew about this subgenre of wines. It’s like our sons’ taste in music. I just call it death metal, but there are so many subgenres like Slam, or Melodic Death Metal, or Grindcore, to just name a few.
But back to the wine - I will say that many of our favorite white wines are in that list I just read which you can get in our show notes, and you can definitely start to pick out what makes those wines a little different from others.
So, again, the wine from this group that we are going to be drinking today is Müller-Thurgau, and we have two Müller-Thurgau wines that we are going to be tasting and reviewing and to see if they are worth you searching out, and we are going to learn a little more about what Müller-Thurgau is, and we have covered this grape a bit, by the way in our sparkling wine from Germany episode called Let’s Talk about Sekt, because in some German sparkling wines, which they call Sekt, they use Müller-Thurgau but that is beside the point so let’s get to learning more about this wine in a moment . . .
But first . . . we have to do our shameless plug.
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And we want to make content you care about and you like, so send us a note and tell us if there are wines you want us to try or wine making areas of the world you are curious about - and we’ll take care of it! joe@thewinepairpodcast.com. And a few shoutouts because it’s been a bit since we have recorded an episode
And, as we do every week, we’ll tell you someone we think you should recommend The Wine Pair Podcast to - because the best way for us to grow listeners is when you tell your family and friends about us. This week, we want you to recommend us to anyone who loves wines like Sauvignon Blanc or Riesling or Viognier or Albariño because first, they may also love Müller-Thurgau, AND we can tell them why!
RESEARCH ARTICLES AND LINKS FOR THIS EPISODE
Topic: WTF is Müller-Thurgau? 12:10
So, let’s learn a little more about what the fuck Müller-Thurgau is. We mentioned this in the German Sparkling episode, but Müller-Thurgau is a grape that was created - yes, we said created - in 1882 by a dude named Dr. Hermann Müller at the Geisenheim Grape Breeding Institute of Germany. Yes, that is a real place. And it still exists.
And, as you might guess, that is where the first part of the name of the grape Müller-Thurgau came from: Müller. The second part of the name, Thurgau, is named for a canton, which is a way of saying district, in Switzerland called, you guessed it, Thurgau, where he was from. So, while the grape was created in Germany, its name is Swiss.
For a long time, Müller-Thurgau was thought to be a cross between the grapes Riesling and Silvaner, and sometimes the grape is also called Rivaner which is a combination of Riesling and Silvaner, but DNA testing showed it is actually a cross between Riesling and grape called Madeleine Royale, which is not a grape I am familiar with.
Madeleine Royale is a white grape variety that is mostly used as a table or eating grape. It is said to be a cross between Pinot and Trollinger, and Trollinger, by the way, is a wine grape used in northern Italy and Germany. The most important thing here is that Madeleine Royale is known for being an early ripening grape.
When Hermman Müller was creating the grape, he was hoping to combine the intensity and complexity of Riesling with the earlier ripening Madeleine Royale. Over time, Müller-Thurgau has become the most widely planted of what are called the “new breed” of grape varieties. And, while it may not be a household name in the United States, in the 1970’s, it was the most planted grape in Germany because it bears a lot of fruit and is easier to grow than Riesling. In fact, it is said that it helped Germany’s post-WWII economy to recover.
Müller-Thurgau was also a grape that helped to establish the wine industry in New Zealand in the 1950’s, and it was the 4th most planted crop plant there until Sauvignon Blanc became more popular.
Fairly or unfairly, Müller-Thurgau is considered to be a grape of lower quality than Riesling, and some critics have called it a bland wine that is often made off-dry or semi-sweet. As a result of this, in the 1980’s and 1990’s, it began to decline in popularity, and a lot of the vines were replaced with Riesling or Silvaner. It is still the second most planted wine grape in Germany, and more than half of the Müller-Thurgau in the world is actually grown in Italy. And, interestingly enough, both of the wines we are drinking today are from Italy.
Now, this may surprise some of you, but Carmela and I saw this first hand, but if you go to some of the more northern areas of Italy, you will find that there is a lot of German, Swiss, and Austrian influence, including in things like food and drink, and even language. We went to a fabulous town called Sirmione on Lake Garda, and the food and beer were very German.
Anyway . . . Müller-Thurgau is also grown in the US in great state of Washington, in Oregon, and it is the most widely planted variety in Luxembourg, which is not in the US, by the way.
Müller-Thurgau is known for creating a light-bodied, lower acid, flowery wine that is described as “drinkable,” which may not be the highest of compliments. However, winemakers in Italy and the United States are trying to make more serious and complex wines from it, and when they are grown at higher altitudes, the grapes can create more acidity, which we love in wine.
It is sometimes said to resemble Muscat in taste - which is often described as peachy and flowery, and sometimes also a bit of tropical fruit, and is considered a less aromatic wine than Riesling.
So, I am super curious to try this wine. I don’t feel like it is getting a ton of love from the articles and research we did on the interwebs, but it is a wine wine drinkers should know because it is widely grown in Italy and Germany, and because it is one of these aromatic dry white wines, and I think it is a wine that we are going to start seeing more since it grows so easily. So, let’s learn more about the wines we chose for this episode.
Müller-Thurgau Wines We Chose for This Episode 20:03
As usual, the wines we have chosen for this episode are under $25, and at least one of them should be relatively easy to find because I did find it on wine.com, and the other I bought at a local wine shop here in Seattle called Mad Wine / Esquin, and these were both found in the Italian white wine section. So, again, although this is most commonly thought of as a German wine, a lot of the Müller-Thurgau you will likely find imported is probably going to come from Italy.
You can find Müller-Thurgau at larger wine shops and places that specialize in Italian and German wines, but you may have to ask the owner of your local wine shop if she or he can order it for you. And, look for local winemakers who may start to play with these wines, too.
The first wine we are going to drink was really hard to find out much information about, so I will pepper in a lot of random but interesting information. It is the 2021 Muri Gries Alto Adige Müller-Thurgau, and it is from, as the name implies, Alto Adige Italy which is the northernmost area of Italy in the Dolomites and it borders Austria, and it is an autonomous region that speaks a lot of German in addition to Italian.
More information than you need to know, but according to Wikipedia, which is never wrong, since the 1970s, most legislative and administrative powers have been transferred to the two self-governing provinces that make up the region: the province of Trento, commonly known as Trentino, and the province of Bolzano, commonly known as South Tyrol (Alto Adige in Italian). In South Tyrol, German remains the majority language.
Back to the wine, the grapes grow about 500 meters or 1500 feet above sea level in soil that is called calcareous - which is soil high in calcium carbonate like limestone, and incidentally, that is the same soil type found in some of the greatest wine regions in the world like Champagne, Burgundy, Chablis, Tuscany, Alsace, the Loire, Saint-Emilion in Bordeaux, and Chateauneuf-du-Pape.
For this wine, the grapes are pressed and after a temperature controlled fermentation at 19 ° C - which is about 65 degrees F - in stainless steel tanks for a week, the wine is stored in stainless steel tanks. So, there should be no oak on this wine.
Also, the name of this wine - Muri Gries - has a story behind it. In 1845, the Benedictine monks from Muri in Switzerland moved to Gries in South Tyrol, where the order took over the Augustinian monastery. In this way, they inherited a long tradition of viticulture which they undertook and became an entire part of the work with the monastery,
The next wine we are going to drink and review is the 2021 Elena Walch Müller-Thurgau, and this wine is also from the Alto Adige area of Italy. The winery says this about their wine making process:
Elena Walch Müller Thurgau is crafted from carefully selected grapes grown in the picturesque vineyards of the Dolomiti region. The wine is fermented in stainless steel tanks to preserve its fresh and aromatic qualities, resulting in a wine that is both expressive and elegant.
For some additional information, the vineyards are between 350 and 650 meters, or 1100 to 2100 feet, above sea level and again in calcareous soils. They hand harvest the wine, the grapes are gently pressed and then they use static clarification, which means they let the juice from the grapes clarify by gravity before fermentation, allowing sediments to settle at the bottom of whatever vessel they are pressing it in. However, all of the sediment can’t be removed because they say they ferment the wine in steel tanks at a controlled temperature of 18ºC and then age it for a few months on the lees in stainless steel containers. So, since there are lees, it is not completely free of sediment, probably mostly yeast from fermentation.
This wine is also classified as an IGT, which is an official Italian wine designation meaning the wine is from a specific region - IGT stands for Indicazione Geographica Tipica, but is much looser than DOC and DOCG. That does not mean these are not good wines, and in fact many of the well known and very expensive Super Tuscans - which are often Cabernet based - are IGT wines.
But, I think that is enough information - let’s get to drinking! We’ll take a quick break and be right back. And, if you have these wines or similar wines, drink along with us to get some participation points, which you can trade-in for free stickers. You just need to send me an email with your mailing address, and I will get those “I drink with The Wine Pair Podcast” stickers over to you!
LINKS TO SOURCES FOR THESE SPECIFIC WINES
2021 Muri Gries Alto Adige Müller-Thurgau, 2021 Elena Walch Müller-Thurgau Wine Tasting, Pairing, and Review 27:02
Wine: Muri Gries Alto Adige Müller-Thurgau
Region: Italy, Trentino Alto-Adige
Year: 2021
Price: $21.99
Retailer: Mad Wine / Esquin
Alcohol: 12.5%
Grapes: Müller-Thurgau
Professional Rating: Vivino 3.8
What we tasted and smelled in this Muri Gries Alto Adige Müller-Thurgau:
Food to pair with this Muri Gries Alto Adige Müller-Thurgau: Something bready, white pizza, fruit and cheese, nuts, fish and chips, spicy foods, pepperoni pizza, seafood, white flaky fish. Needs food.
As a reminder on our rating scale, we rate on a scale of 1-10, with no half points, where 7 and above means that we would buy it, and 4 and below means that we are likely to pour it down the sink, and a 5 or 6 means we are likely to drink it and finish it, but we are probably not going to buy it.
Muri Gries Alto Adige Müller-Thurgau Wine Rating:
Wine: Elena Walch Müller-Thurgau (Click here to find this wine on wine.com. We may be compensated if you purchase)
Region: Italy, Trentino Alto-Adige
Year: 2021
Price: $22.99
Retailer: wine.com
Alcohol: 12.5%
Grapes: Müller-Thurgau
Professional Rating: Vivino 3.7
What we tasted and smelled in this Elena Walch Müller-Thurgau:
Food to pair with this Elena Walch Müller-Thurgau: Fish, seafood, spaghetti and clams, fish and chips, shrimp, shellfish, fish and chips, spicy foods, charcuterie
Elena Walch Müller-Thurgau Wine Rating:
Which one of these are you finishing tonight?
Taste profiles expected from Müller-Thurgau 38:25
Müller-Thurgau is being added to our go-to white wine list!
Outro and how to find The Wine Pair Podcast 41:01
Ok, so, Carmela, it’s time for us to go, but before we do, we want to thank you very much for listening to us - and if you haven’t done so yet, now would be the perfect time to follow or subscribe to our podcast and also a fantastic time to leave us a nice rating and review on our website or Apple podcasts or other podcast app - and it is an awesome and free way to support us and help us grow listeners.
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Alright, with that, we are going to sign off, so thanks again, and we will see you next time. And, as we say, life is short, so stop drinking shitty wine.
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