Reichensteiner, white grape variety whose geisenheim creator Heinrich Birk maintained it was the first eu cross, with French, Italian, and German antecedents. In 1939 he developed this cross of müller-thurgau with a cross of the French table grape madeleine angevine and the Italian Early Calabrese. Its antecedents are hardly noble and both wine and vine most closely resemble its undistinguished German parent, but Reichensteiner with its looser bunches is less prone to rot and well-pruned plants stand a good chance of reaching prädikatswein must weights in good years. Just 70 ha remained in Germany in 2012 but it has also been planted in England and to a limited extent in Switzerland, Japan, New Zealand, and British Columbia.
