User:Tomas e/Traminer

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Traminer
Traminer
Gewürztraminer vine and grapes
Species: Vitis vinifera
Also called: Savagnin, Gewürztraminer
Notable regions: Alsace, Germany, Austria, NE Italy
Grapes and vines of the Traminer family, in this case "Red Traminer".
Grapes and vines of the Traminer family, in this case "Red Traminer".

Traminer is a family of white grape varieties used in wine production, with the highly aromatic Gewürztraminer being the most well known.[1][2][3] Traminer is an ancient cultivar of the European vine Vitis vinifera and a large number of other younger grape varieties have Traminer in their pedigree.

Contents

[edit] Classification and members of the Traminer family

The Traminer family encompasses several varieties and a large number of clones, that are known under several overlapping synonyms in different wine regions. Therefore, the distinction between clones of the same variety that bear a local name, and different varieties is somewhat blurred. Despite these difficulties, the members of Traminer family are often grouped into three distinct varieties based on difference in the colour of their grape skins and the level of fragrance (musqué) of the grapes. These three varieties, and some of their proper names are:[3]

Less aromatic
non-musqué		 Highly aromatic
musqué
Pale grape skins
(yellow)		 White Traminer
(Weisser Traminer)
Yellow Traminer
(Gelber Traminer)
Savagnin blanc		 Not a known combination
Highly coloured grape skins
(red-brown, red, pink or orange)		 Red Traminer
(Roter Traminer)
Savagnin rose		 Gewürztraminer

The division into three varieties mainly goes back to Pierre Galet, who put forward the hypothesis that Savagnin and Traminer are in fact the same variety.

[edit] Genetic relationship between the members

There are various differences in leaf morphology, vine size and grape yield between members of the family. Genetically, the three varieties are similar enough to be undistinguishable from each other by the methods used since the 1990s for DNA-based ampelographic investigations. Such investigations have mainly been directed at indentifying the parentage of grape varieties resulting from crossings of two varieties, i.e., where one variety has pollinated another and the original vine of the new variety was grown from a seed, a so-called seedling. This indicates that the difference between the members of the Traminer family stems from minor mutations, and not from crossings.

[edit] Naming confusion

Part of the naming confusion derives from the fact that part of German-speaking wine community previously only differentiated the members of the Traminer family by grape skin colour. Thus, the less aromatic Red Traminer was seen as the same grape variety as the highly aromatic Gewürztraminer. (The Vitis International Variety Catalogue, based in Germany, still treats Roter Traminer and Gewürztraminer as the same variety.[4]) Furthermore, the distinction between White/Yellow Traminer and Red Traminer, while obvious in the vineyard at harvest time, was not always displayed on wine labels, leading to Traminer being used as a synonym for any variety in the family. More rarely, the reciprocal name use has been applied, with Gewürztraminer being used as a synonym for any Traminer variety, but probably more in descriptive text than on wine labels.

[edit] Gewürztraminer

Main article: Gewürztraminer

The highly aromatic Gewürztraminer is one of the most easily distinguishable grape varieties. It is by far the most popular member of the family, and accounts for the bulk of all plantations of Traminer family grapes.[2]

It is generally considered a musqué mutation of the less aromatic Red Traminer. Thus, Gewürztraminer is younger than Red Traminer, but is not known when the mutation took place.

This bottle of varietal Savagnin (blanc) from Jura acknowledges the relationship between Savagnin and Traminer on the back label. This has not always been the case in Jura.
This bottle of varietal Savagnin (blanc) from Jura acknowledges the relationship between Savagnin and Traminer on the back label. This has not always been the case in Jura.

[edit] White Traminer or Savagnin blanc

Main article: Savagnin

The pale-skinned Traminer grape is known in France as Savagnin blanc, and is primaril grown for use in Jura wine. Savagnin blanc is used both for highly distinctive Vin jaune and for other dry white wines, and for sweet Vin de paille.

It seems likely that a white Traminer is the oldest member of the family, since there are apparently more clones of white Traminer than of red Traminer. More clones indicates that it has been propagated by cuttings for a longer time, with more chance for mutations producing slightly different versions.

[edit] Red Traminer or Savagnin rose

The red-skinned, but less aromatic Traminer grape is known in France as Savagnin rose, and is to some extent grown in Alsace to make the wine Klevener de Heiligenstein. However, plantings are dwarfed by those of Alsatian Gewürztraminer, and replanting is not allowed.

The designation red does not mean that it is a dark-skinned "red wine" grape (which are generally described as blue in German and black in French), only that the grapes are literally red or reddish, i.e., more deeply coloured than the white or yellow Traminer.

[edit] History

Next to the Muscat family of grapes, the Traminer family probably contain the most ancient grape varieties still in cultivation. The exact age or geographic origin has not been established, but many hypotheses have been forwarded, and it is likely that the history of Traminer cultivation goes back at least to antiquity.[3]

Proposed origins include ancient Egypt, Greece (coupled with a later introduction in Italy) or South Tyrol. German ampelographer Hermann Goethe proposed that Traminer was identical to the variety Aminea described by Pliny the Elder in the first century B.C., while others have assumed that Traminer would be Pliny's Nomentana. There seems to be little ampelographic evidence to back up any of these hypotheses.[3]

Modern ampelographic investigations based on DNA sequencing do however support earlier assumptions that the Traminer family is very old, by establishing the following:[3]

  • Traminer appears in the pedigree of a large number of other varieties, several of which have been well documented back to the 14th century (Pinot Noir as Klebroth on Lake Constance, 1318[5]), and some of which are sometimes assumed to date back to antiquity (such as Elbling).
  • No other grape variety that has been analysed appears to be a parent of Traminer.
  • There are indications, from investigations in the 1990s, that Traminer was selected from wild vines, Vitis vinifera ssp. sylvestris. However, such conclusions are not entirely certain, since the limited population of sexually propagating wild vine that exists today may have had genetic material from cultivated vines (non-sexually propagated by man) mixed in, rather than being "untainted".

In the 1546 edition of his herbal Kreütter Buch, Hieronymus Bock used the name "Traminner".[3]

The name Traminer most likely refers to the village Tramin (Italian name Termeno) in South Tyrol, with the suffix "-er" being the German language possessive form. Trade with Traminer in the meaning "wine of Tramin" have been documented back to medieval times, but is thought likely that those wines were produced from the variety Räuschling, which is also called Großer Traminer.[3] For ancient grapes like Traminer, the origin of the modern name does not automatically indicate the variety's origin. For varieties selected from wild wines, very little clues as to the geographic origin is provided by DNA analysis. Thus, the origin and early history of Traminer is not known, only that it has a long history.

The Gewürz- part of Gewürztraminer has been added later, possibly in the Palatinate in Germany. The name Gewürztraminer started to be used in Alsace after 1870. For a long time, Gewürztraminer would be used for better wines, with simpler ones called Traminer, but in 1973 Gewürztraminer was adpoted as the only allowed name.

[edit] Traminer offspring

Grape varities that are the offspring of Traminer include:[3]

[edit] References

  1. ^ "Traminer". Oxford Companion to Wine (Third Edition). (2006). Ed. Jancis Robinson. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 708-709. ISBN 0-19-860990-6. 
  2. ^ a b "Gewürztraminer". Oxford Companion to Wine (Third Edition). (2006). Ed. Jancis Robinson. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 313-314. ISBN 0-19-860990-6. 
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h Wein-Plus Wein-Glossar: Traminer, accessed on April 8, 2008
  4. ^ Vitis International Variety Catalogue: Roter Traminer, accessed on April 23, 2008]
  5. ^ Wein-Plus Wein-Glossar: Pinot Noir, accessed on April 8, 2008

[[Category:Grape varieties]]