The Grapes of Germany

German Wine · Foundations

What you will be able to do

Separate the Pinot mutations from the crossings, and give the official German name of each
State what molecular markers have and have not established about Riesling's parentage
Name six varieties whose recorded pedigree was overturned by marker analysis, and say what each turned out to be
Attribute the major German crossings to the station that bred them and the year they were crossed
Distinguish the varieties that carry Riesling in the name but not in the genes
Apply the 85 percent and 100 percent rules for naming a variety, and the nineteen names German law withholds from wine without a PDO or PGI

Müller-Thurgau is not Riesling crossed with Silvaner. Scheurebe is not Silvaner crossed with Riesling. Schwarzriesling is not a Riesling at all. The first two of those errors were made by the breeders themselves and written into the record, where they stood until molecular markers caught them.

This lesson is about what the primary record actually says. The record in question is the Vitis International Variety Catalogue, maintained by the Julius Kühn-Institut at Geilweilerhof, and its most useful feature is that it keeps two pedigree fields side by side: pedigree as given by breeder/bibliography, and pedigree confirmed by markers. Where those two disagree, there is a story.

Germany grows more than 100 varieties, on the Deutsches Weininstitut's count against its 2024 area figures. What follows is not a survey of them. It is the ancestry, the breeding stations, the naming traps, and the law that decides which of those names may go on a bottle.

The Pinot complex, and why it has so many German names

Start with the family that causes the most confusion, because its members are not really separate varieties at all.

VIVC records Pinot Noir with a marker pedigree of an unknown partner crossed with Savagnin Blanc, which is the catalogue's prime name for the grape German growers call Traminer (trah-MEE-ner). Everything else in the group descends from Pinot Noir by mutation rather than by crossing:

VIVC prime name	Relationship	Official German name
Pinot Noir	unknown x Savagnin Blanc	Blauer Spätburgunder
Pinot Gris	Pinot Noir mutation	Grauer Burgunder
Pinot Blanc	Pinot Noir mutation	Weisser Burgunder
Pinot Meunier	Pinot Noir mutation	Müllerrebe
Pinot Precoce Noir	Pinot Noir mutation	Blauer Frühburgunder

The distinction between a mutation and a crossing is not pedantry. A crossing has two parents. VIVC records a mutation differently: the pedigree field simply reads "Pinot Noir mutation", with no two parents given. In the Pinot group the change is in the berry skin: VIVC records Pinot Noir's colour as noir, Pinot Gris' as gris, Pinot Blanc's as blanc. One variety, three colours.

Samtrot is worth holding. VIVC records it as a mutation of Pinot Meunier, attributed to August Herold at Weinsberg, which makes it a mutation of a mutation of Pinot Noir. Its country of origin is Germany.

Frühburgunder (FROO-boor-goon-der) is the mutation worth knowing for a tasting exam. Its German name records the behaviour: the DWI says it ripens in August, about two weeks ahead of Spätburgunder, and that it came close to disappearing in the 1960s through disease susceptibility before deliberate conservation work re-established it.

Two synonyms round out the group, both with documented origins. Ruländer (ROO-len-der) goes back to a merchant named Johann Ruland, who in 1711 found and propagated unknown Burgunder vines in a garden at Speyer in the Pfalz; the DWI records that the name attached itself to the sweeter, richer style of Pinot Gris while Grauburgunder was mostly made dry. Klevner is used in parts of Baden for Spätburgunder. And Pinot itself, the DWI says, comes from the French pin, pine, after the shape of the bunch.

Riesling, and the parent nobody can name

VIVC's marker field for Riesling Weiss reads a question mark, crossed with Heunisch Weiss. One parent established, one not.

That is the answer, and the discipline is to stop there. Riesling's missing parent is a magnet for invention, and every plausible-sounding candidate you have read is somebody's inference rather than the catalogue's record.

Heunisch Weiss is worth holding on to, because it keeps reappearing:

Riesling Weiss: unknown x Heunisch Weiss
Elbling Weiss: unknown x Heunisch Weiss
Blaufränkisch: Zimmettraube Blau x Heunisch Weiss
Österreichisch Weiss: Alba Imputotato x Heunisch Weiss, and

Österreichisch Weiss is in turn a parent of Silvaner

So one white vine sits a single generation above Riesling, Elbling, Blaufränkisch and, at one further remove, Silvaner.

Elbling is among the oldest cultivated white varieties in Europe. The DWI reports that Obermosel growers claim a two-thousand-year tradition, that the Romans probably called the vine Vitis alba, the white vine, and that philologists derive Elbling from alba by way of Alben and Elben. Its decline is attributed to the abolition of the tithe wines, for which Elbling's generous yields made it the obvious choice. German has a word for a variety of that kind, Schuldenzahler (SHOOL-den-tsah-ler), debt-payer, and the DWI records it as a synonym for Weisser Elbling.

Riesling's own documentary record is precise. The DWI dates the first appearance of the word in a document to 13 March 1435, and calls it the Riesling birthday. It cites Rheingau and Mosel documents of 1435 and 1465 as the earliest evidence of the tradition, and notes that the derivation of the name is still unsettled. In Baden the synonym Klingelberger may be used.

Silvaner is Austrian

VIVC gives Silvaner Gruen a country of origin of Austria and a marker pedigree of Traminer crossed with Österreichisch Weiss.

This settled an old argument. The DWI describes scholars puzzling for years over whether the name pointed to Transylvania, to Silvan in Central Asia, or to a Roman origin; the genetic answer, the DWI says, makes an Alpine origin secure.

Its German history is documented to the year. The DWI records that Silvaner vines were first planted at Castell near Würzburg in 1659, and attributes the arrival to the Cistercian monks of the abbey at Ebrach, which maintained trading links as far as Austria.

Note the pattern forming. Riesling's second parent is unknown. Pinot Noir has Traminer as a parent, under VIVC's prime name Savagnin Blanc. So does Silvaner.

Six times the breeder wrote down the wrong parents

Six German-relevant varieties have a breeder's record that markers overturned.

Variety	Recorded by the breeder	Confirmed by markers
Müller-Thurgau	Riesling x Silvaner	Riesling x Madeleine Royale
Scheurebe	Silvaner x Riesling	Riesling x Bukettrebe
Huxelrebe	Gutedel x Courtillier Musqué	Elbling x Muscat Précoce de Saumur
Goldriesling	Riesling x Courtiller Musqué	Riesling x Malingré Précoce
Souvignier Gris	Cabernet Sauvignon x Bronner	Seyval x Zähringer
Cabernet Blanc	Cabernet Sauvignon x a fungus-resistant variety	Cabernet Sauvignon x Regent

Müller-Thurgau is the famous one. VIVC attributes it to Hermann Müller, working at Geisenheim, and gives the year of crossing as 1883. The breeder recorded Riesling crossed with Silvaner. Markers give Riesling crossed with Madeleine Royale, bred in France by Moreau-Robert in 1845. The correction goes further than it first appears: Madeleine Royale's own parents are Pinot and Schiava Grossa, which is Trollinger. So Müller-Thurgau's grandparents include Pinot and Trollinger, and Silvaner appears nowhere in the confirmed line at all.

The DWI fills in the biography: Hermann Müller came from the Swiss canton of Thurgau, lived from 1850 to 1927, and the variety was further developed at the Swiss station at Wädenswil and named after him in 1913. The synonym Rivaner is a contraction of Riesling and Silvaner, so the synonym preserves both of the breeder's original names. The DWI adds a practical note: a wine labelled Rivaner can be assumed to be dry, young, light and fresh.

Scheurebe is the subtler case. Georg Scheu made the cross at Alzey in 1916 and recorded it as Silvaner crossed with Riesling. The DWI dates the DNA identification of the real second parent, Bukettrebe, to 2012. But Bukettrebe is itself Silvaner crossed with Trollinger. So Silvaner really is in Scheurebe's ancestry, one generation further back than the breeder thought. The old name was wrong about the generation, not about the family.

Scheurebe also had two earlier names. The DWI records that it was known until the end of 1945 as Dr.-Wagner-Rebe and afterwards as Sämling 88, and that Scheus Liebling was considered and rejected because in the Rheinhessen dialect it risked coming out as Scheis Liebling.

Rieslaner is the control case. August Ziegler crossed it at the Bayerische Landesanstalt für Weinbau und Gartenbau in 1921, and VIVC records Silvaner crossed with Riesling in both fields alike. Rieslaner genuinely is what Scheurebe was believed to be.

The stations

VIVC identifies each breeder institute by a code. Six German stations account for the German crossings in this lesson, and the lesson names the private and French breeders separately as they come up.

Station	Varieties in this lesson
Geilweilerhof, Siebeldingen (Julius Kühn-Institut)	Regent, Diana, Bacchus, Domina
Geisenheim	Müller-Thurgau
Freiburg (Staatliches Weinbauinstitut)	Solaris, Muscaris, Souvignier Gris, Merzling
Weinsberg	Kerner, Dornfelder, Helfensteiner, Heroldrebe, Samtrot
Bayerische Landesanstalt für Weinbau und Gartenbau	Rieslaner
Alzey (Landesanstalt für Rebenzüchtung)	Scheurebe, Huxelrebe

Geilweilerhof is the one to know by name. It sits at Siebeldingen in the Pfalz, it is led by Dr. Oliver Trapp, and it maintains both VIVC and one of the world's largest vine collections as a genbank. Its own site marks 2026 as the station's centenary year. Its current white release is Calardis Blanc, named from Calardiswilre, which the institute gives as the old Frankish name for the Geilweilerhof, and bred for multiple resistances to powdery mildew, downy mildew and black rot.

Weinsberg deserves attention for a different reason. One breeder, August Herold, is responsible for Kerner, for Samtrot, and for Dornfelder together with both of its parents.

Dornfelder, and how to hold four grandparents in your head

Dornfelder was crossed at Weinsberg in 1955 and protected on 3 December 1979. Its parents are Helfensteiner and Heroldrebe, and both were crossed by Herold in the preceding decades:

Helfensteiner, crossed 1931: Frühburgunder x Trollinger
Heroldrebe, crossed 1929: Portugieser x Blaufränkisch

So Dornfelder's four grandparents are Frühburgunder, Trollinger, Portugieser and Blaufränkisch. Note what that is not. Spätburgunder is upstream, because Frühburgunder is a mutation of it, but it is not itself a grandparent.

The DWI records that Dornfelder was at first used as a Deckrotwein (DEK-roht-vine), a colour wine blended into pale reds, grown on 124 hectares in Germany in 1979. It also records that the variety has essentially no career outside Germany, with about 21 hectares in Switzerland as at 2018.

Two of those grandparents have a tangled history of their own. VIVC gives both Blaufränkisch and Portugieser a country of origin of Slovenia, and both have Zimmettraube Blau as a confirmed parent: Blaufränkisch with Heunisch Weiss, Portugieser with Silvaner. The DWI agrees on the geography for both, placing the origin in present-day north-east Slovenia and attributing the findings to the Julius Kühn-Institut. It adds that Portugieser reached Austria in the eighteenth century and Germany in the nineteenth, that Johann Philipp Bronner took on its conservation breeding, and that Blauer Gänsfüßer is among its grandparents.

The naming is a separate trap, and the DWI is explicit about it: Blauer Limberger is the name under which the variety is classified, and Lemberger and Blaufränkisch are the synonyms permitted for German wines of it. In Hungary the same grape is Kékfrankos.

Trollinger carries the same kind of double life. The DWI derives the name from Tirolinger, describes the grape as a Grossvernatsch, and notes that in South Tyrol it is Vernatsch, in Italian Schiava. VIVC's prime name is Schiava Grossa, with a country of origin of Italy, which is why the catalogue's Kerner and Helfensteiner entries read Schiava Grossa where a German source would write Trollinger.

Three generations from Geilweilerhof

The Geilweilerhof crossings are best learned as a chain rather than a list. The third link leaves the station: a Geilweilerhof variety turns up as the parent of a private breeder's crossing.

Diana, by Peter Morio, Bernhard Husfeld and Gerhardt Alleweldt: Silvaner

crossed with Müller-Thurgau.

Regent, by Alleweldt, crossed 1967: Diana crossed with

Chambourcin. Which is why the DWI writes the cross out in full as (Silvaner x Müller-Thurgau) x Chambourcin, and credits the roughly hundred-year-old French variety Chambourcin with supplying the resistance.

Cabernet Blanc, by the private breeder Valentin Blattner, crossed

1991: recorded as Cabernet Sauvignon crossed with an unnamed fungus-resistant variety, and identified by markers as Cabernet Sauvignon crossed with Regent.

The DWI's chronology for Regent is that first plantings in trial holdings followed from 1985, and that it has been authorised for quality wine production since 1996. Sources differ on the date protection was granted, so the authorisation year is the safer one to quote.

Two further Geilweilerhof crossings fill out the programme. Bacchus, by Peter Morio, crossed 1933, is recorded and confirmed alike as (Silvaner x Riesling) x Müller-Thurgau; note that its first parent is itself an unnamed crossing rather than a named variety. Domina, by Morio and Husfeld, crossed 1927, is Portugieser crossed with Spätburgunder.

One thing about Regent is worth separating out. Its leaves are as resistant to phylloxera as those of conventional varieties, but its roots are not, so the variety must be grafted. Fungus resistance and phylloxera resistance are separate problems, and a resistant variety solves only the first.

The fungus-resistant crossings

The modern German programme runs through Freiburg under Norbert Becker:

Variety	Crossed	Protected	Pedigree
Solaris	1975	2001	Merzling x Geisenheim 6493
Souvignier Gris	1983	2012	markers: Seyval x Zähringer
Muscaris	1987	2012	Solaris x Gelber Muskateller

Muscaris is a Solaris seedling, so the programme is visibly building on itself, and Merzling was bred at the same station by Johannes Zimmermann, crossed in 1960 and protected in 1995. VIVC records Souvignier Gris with a rosé berry skin, not a white one.

Note the gap between the two date columns: twenty-six years for Solaris, twenty-nine for Souvignier Gris, twenty-five for Muscaris. That is unremarkable for a vine. Dornfelder took twenty-four years, Kerner forty, and Regent was crossed in 1967 and authorised in 1996.

What the law lets you call it

Two provisions decide which variety name may go on the label, and they operate at different levels.

EU Delegated Regulation 2019/33, Article 50, paragraph 1 letter a sets the proportions:

If one variety or synonym is named, at least 85 percent of the

product must have been made from it, not counting any quantity used in sweetening, expedition liqueur or tirage liqueur.

If two or more are named, 100 percent must have been made from those

varieties, with the same exclusions, and they must appear on the label "in descending order of the proportion used and in characters of the same size".

That last clause is the one to remember. A producer may not print the fashionable variety large and the makeweight small.

Letter b adds where the names themselves come from: for products made in the Union, the names must be those in the wine grape varieties classification under Article 81 paragraph 2 of Regulation (EU) No 1308/2013. For Member States exempted from the classification obligation, the names must come from the "International list of vine varieties and their synonyms" managed by the International Organisation of Vine and Wine. A variety name is not free text.

Weinverordnung section 42, Rebsortenangaben, is Germany's own layer. Paragraph 1 tightens the EU rule for sweetened Landwein, Qualitätswein, Prädikatswein, Qualitätsperlwein b.A. and Qualitätslikörwein b.A.: counting the products used for sweetening, not more than 25 percent may come from other varieties. The EU article excludes the sweetening reserve from the calculation. German law puts it back in.

Paragraph 2 does something different and more interesting. For wine from harvest year 2011 onwards that carries neither a protected designation of origin nor a protected geographical indication, it is unlawful to state any of nineteen variety names. The statute numbers them 1 to 19; they are set out here in that order, read down the columns:


Blauer Frühburgunder	Grauer Burgunder	Roter Riesling
Blauer Limberger	Grüner Silvaner	Roter Traminer
Blauer Portugieser	Müller-Thurgau	Weißer Burgunder
Blauer Silvaner	Müllerrebe	Weißer Elbling
Blauer Spätburgunder	Roter Elbling	Weißer Gutedel
Blauer Trollinger	Roter Gutedel	Weißer Riesling
Dornfelder

The provision closes by extending the ban to synonyms of those names, so labelling such a wine Rivaner or Schwarzriesling or Pinot Noir fails for the same reason. Perlwein, Schaumwein, Qualitätsschaumwein and dealcoholised and partially dealcoholised wine are expressly excluded from the provision.

The practical effect is that Germany's traditional variety names are reserved to wines that also carry an origin. A German varietal wine without a PDO or a PGI has to find something else to call itself.

The four false Rieslings

Four varieties in the German orbit carry Riesling in the name. Two are unrelated to it and two genuinely descend from it.

Name	VIVC origin	Related to Riesling?
Schwarzriesling	France, as Pinot Meunier	No. A Pinot Noir mutation
Welschriesling	Italy	No. Coccalona Nera x unknown
Goldriesling	France	Yes. Riesling x Malingré Précoce
Rieslaner	Germany	Yes. Silvaner x Riesling

Schwarzriesling is Pinot Meunier. The DWI puts the relationship plainly: it shares with Riesling only its late ripening and its bunch shape. Its German synonym Müllerrebe refers to the leaf undersides and shoot tips, which look as though dusted with flour, and the DWI records that in France, pressed white, it is a blending partner in Champagne. Cultivation in Germany is largely confined to Württemberg, and the DWI credits vine breeding at Heilbronn and Weinsberg with developing its quality.

Welschriesling VIVC places in Italy, with Coccalona Nera as its one identified parent and the other unknown. It is not among the nineteen names in section 42.

Goldriesling keeps bad company in the name and is genuine all the same. VIVC gives its country of origin as France, its breeder as Christian Oberlin at the Institute Viticole Oberlin, and its year of crossing as 1893. Oberlin recorded Riesling crossed with Courtiller Musqué; markers give Riesling crossed with Malingré Précoce. So it is a genuine Riesling descendant, and it is also row four of the mis-recorded table above.

Exam Notes

Riesling's parentage is half-known and the right answer says so. Unknown

crossed with Heunisch Weiss. Naming the unknown parent is the commonest way to lose the mark.

**Two pedigree fields, and a difference between them is not automatically an

error.** Kerner and Muscaris differ only in naming convention. Müller-Thurgau, Scheurebe, Huxelrebe, Goldriesling, Souvignier Gris and Cabernet Blanc are genuine corrections.

Scheurebe versus Rieslaner is the sharpest pair in the lesson. Both were

believed to be Silvaner x Riesling. Rieslaner is. Scheurebe is Riesling x Bukettrebe, with Silvaner a grandparent through Bukettrebe.

Mutation or crossing? Pinot Gris, Pinot Blanc, Pinot Meunier and

Frühburgunder are mutations of Pinot Noir. Samtrot is a mutation of Pinot Meunier, and Kernling is a mutation of Kerner. Everything else in this lesson is a crossing.

Heunisch Weiss is a confirmed parent of Riesling, Elbling, Blaufränkisch

and Österreichisch Weiss, and so a grandparent of Silvaner.

Traminer, under its VIVC prime name Savagnin Blanc, is a confirmed parent

of both Pinot Noir and Silvaner.

85 and 100. One variety named, 85 percent. Two or more named, 100 percent

between them, in descending order, same size of type. A sweetened German quality wine is tighter still: not more than 25 percent from other varieties, counting the sweetening.

Nineteen names, not nineteen varieties. Section 42 paragraph 2 protects

names, and several of the nineteen are colour variants, among them the rarely found Roter Elbling. The ban runs from harvest year 2011 and extends to synonyms.

Dornfelder's grandparents are Frühburgunder, Trollinger, Portugieser and

Blaufränkisch. Spätburgunder is upstream through Frühburgunder but is not a grandparent. Domina is the Geilweilerhof crossing that does have Spätburgunder as a named parent.

Fungus resistance is not phylloxera resistance. Regent's leaves resist

phylloxera and its roots do not, so it is grafted like anything else.

Years of crossing worth holding: Müller-Thurgau 1883, Scheurebe 1916,

Rieslaner 1921, Domina 1927, Heroldrebe 1929, Kerner 1929, Helfensteiner 1931, Bacchus 1933, Dornfelder 1955, Merzling 1960, Regent 1967, Solaris 1975, Souvignier Gris 1983, Muscaris 1987, Cabernet Blanc 1991.

Glossary

Rebsorte: RAYB-zor-tuh Grape variety. Weinverordnung section 42 is headed Rebsortenangaben and governs when the name of one may appear on a German label.
Mutation: moo-tah-TSYOHN A change arising within an existing variety rather than from a cross. VIVC records it in the pedigree field as a mutation of the parent variety, with no two parents given.
Sortenschutz: ZOR-ten-shoots Plant variety protection, the breeder's legal right in a new variety. VIVC records the year it was granted alongside the year of crossing.
Weisser Burgunder: VY-ser BOOR-goon-der The official German name of Pinot Blanc, and one of the nineteen names listed in Weinverordnung section 42 paragraph 2.
Grauer Burgunder: GROW-er BOOR-goon-der The official German name of Pinot Gris. Ruländer is the older synonym, historically attached to the sweeter, richer style.
Müllerrebe: MOO-ler-ray-buh The official German name of Pinot Meunier. Schwarzriesling is its common synonym and has nothing to do with Riesling.
Frühburgunder: FROO-boor-goon-der A mutation of Pinot Noir that ripens about two weeks ahead of it. Its official name is Blauer Frühburgunder and its VIVC prime name is Pinot Precoce Noir.
Samtrot: ZAMT-roht A mutation of Pinot Meunier with Germany as its country of origin, attributed by VIVC to August Herold at Weinsberg. A mutation of a mutation of Pinot Noir.
Rivaner: ree-VAH-ner A synonym for Müller-Thurgau, contracted from Riesling and Silvaner, the two varieties long but wrongly believed to be its parents.
Bukettrebe: boo-KET-ray-buh Silvaner crossed with Trollinger, bred privately by Sebastian Englert. Identified by DNA in 2012 as the true second parent of Scheurebe.
Heunisch Weiss: HOY-nish VYSS An old white variety recorded by VIVC as a confirmed parent of Riesling, of Elbling, of Blaufränkisch and of Österreichisch Weiss.
Deckrotwein: DEK-roht-vine A colour wine, blended into a pale red to deepen it. Dornfelder was at first used this way.
Geilweilerhof: GILE-vy-ler-hohf The Julius Kühn-Institut's grapevine breeding station at Siebeldingen in the Pfalz. It maintains VIVC and one of the world's largest vine collections.