Trollinger or Blauer Trollinger is the most common German name for the distinctly ordinary black grape variety known as schiava in Italy, vernatsch in the Tyrol, and Black Hamburg by many who grow and buy table grapes. It almost certainly originated in what is now the Italian Tyrol (see alto adige) and its German name is a corruption of Tirolinger. In Germany, it is associated exclusively with württemberg, where it has been cultivated since the 14th century (see german history). This southern region’s 2,350 ha/5,804 acres sufficed as of 2003 to sustain the variety’s position as Germany’s fourth most planted red wine vine, a rather astonishing statistic when one considers that virtually all of the resultant pale red is drunk by thirsty Württembergers.
