WTN: 2004 Trefenbrunner Mulller Thurgau Feldmarschall von Fenner zu Fennberg

I wanted to buy this because of the name alone....(now where did I read something about this not so long ago....)

The colour is very light. When I poured a quick sample, had to pour a bit more to see the color. Very light yellow with a hint of green.

Nose is lithe, floral, nectarine, jasmine, and structured. On the palate, the structure came through strongly. Very lithe, nice acidity, nice clean refreshing mouthfeel with a great sense of minerality from the mid palate forth. Long persistence and very interesting. It is much more of a food wine than a general sipper.

The wine you tasted is from the producer Tiefenbrunner, I think. I last tasted it in the early 90s and always thought the wine was one of the best Müller-Thuraus that I had ever tasted with great concentration (for M-T that is).

I visited them in South Tyrol (Süd Tyrol) many years ago when they claimed (wrongly) that The Feldmarschall vineyard was the highest altitude in Europe. It was at around 1000m - at the time I knew of a Swiss Valais vineyard that was higher, and Aosta Vineyards in Italy that were higher still. Today there are even higher vineyards in Andalucia, Southern Spain I believe, possibly up to 1500m.

They do have a basic website and here is the link to the wine, but it doesn't mention the history of the name!
http://www.tiefenbrunner.com/feldmarschall20040.0.html

Many thanks for that. I did not know that they had a website but it was neat to go through that. Someone else pointed that they produce a large list of wines and it was neat to actually see that. Interesting producer. Also good to talk to someone who has been there too, adds a different dimension to things. I do not have much experience with Muller Thurgau so was not able to make any statements about varietal....now I'll look for a few more. nice thing about wine....always learning and always so much left to learn.

I really do think you might be wasting your time looking for other good Müller-Thurgau wines. It is most prevalent in Germany where for about 25 years it overtook Riesling plantings to make some of their dullest, cheapest wines, partly responsible for the steep decline in exports from there. A few better ones are made today, sometimes sold under the synonym Rivaner. It was also widely grown in England for a while, because it copes in difficult weather, but even here it has been overtaken by better varietals. In Switzerland there were (are?) some reasonable medium sweet examples under the Riesling-Sylvaner synonym.

With the exception of the Feldmarschall it's most important contribution to viticulture was existing at all - being allegedly the first vine crossing ever made (by Dr Müller in the Swiss canton of Thurgau) but they are not even sure what it was a crossing of, having lost the notes he made over 100 years ago! It was orginally thought to have been RieslingxSilvaner but more recently they've decided it was probably a RieslingxRiesling (don't ask me to explain that, please!).

I agree that the Feldmarschall is excellent (can't remember which vintage I drank).

There are others, though; I import one (Garlider) from the Eisackthaler (fairly high altitude) that is delicious, minerally, floral...

The only Mueller-Thurgau I can get behind is in the form of Grappa. Pojer e Sandri makes a good one. I've had some 'quaint' Riesling-Silvaner from around Appenzell, but it only really tastes good when you're looking down across the border at Liechtenstein with contempt (kidding, I love Liechtenstein!)