Welschriesling or Wälschriesling, important white grape variety which, as Germans are keen to point out, is completely unrelated to the great riesling grape of Germany. Indeed it rankles with many Germans that the noble word is even allowed as a suffix in the name of this inferior variety; they would prefer that the word Rizling were used, as in Welsch Rizling or Welschrizling, which it is in many of its many synonyms. Welsch simply means ‘foreign’ in Germanic languages, which provides few clues but suggests that the variety may well have originated in a non-German-speaking country. It is widely planted in much of central and eastern Europe.
