Trollinger

Trollinger is the everyday red of Württemberg in southern Germany, and it is the same grape as Schiava Grossa in Italy and Vernatsch in Alto Adige. The German name is thought to be a corruption of Tirolinger, pointing at the Tyrol, and the Italian evidence supports an Alpine origin rather than a German one.

It makes a pale, light, low tannin red with high acidity and a red cherry and almond character, at modest alcohol. In Württemberg it is drunk locally in enormous quantities and exported almost not at all, often in the region's distinctive glass tumbler. It is also blended with Lemberger, the German name for Blaufränkisch, which gives it colour and structure it does not have.

The same grape has a better reputation south of the Alps. In Alto Adige it makes Santa Maddalena and Lago di Caldaro, both light fragrant reds served cool, and Santa Maddalena in particular is taken seriously. It is also one parent of Black Muscat, which is a strange thing for a pale Alpine red to be.