Mother: Silvaner
Father: Ruländer (Pinot Gris, Grauburgunder)

Year of breeding: 1916, by Professor Karl Müller at the Staatlichen Weinbauinstitut in Freiburg. Initially it was named Freiburger but in 1958 the name was changed to Freisamer.
Country of origin: Germany
History: it was introduced as a major improvement on the then poor yielding Ruländer (Pinot gris).
Breeder/License holder: Staatlichen Weinbauinstitut in Freiburg
Number of clones: Fr.130 and Fr.131 (slightly higher yield and slightly lower acidity)

Year of entry into the German Federal Office's Varieties Register: 
Area planted in Germany (July 2006): 14 hectares (only 12 ha in 2001).
Presently it is grown in Baden-Württemberg (9 ha), Rheinpfalz (3 ha) and the Nahe (2 ha); also in some Swiss cantons (3.86 ha in 2005).
Area planted in England (as at August 2004):

Wine Character - colour: 
                      - bouquet: neutral
                      - palate: neutral, fine, harmonious. Trials in Germany, on the upper Mosel, have produced a methode champenoise which is indistinguishable from good Champagne.

Time of bud-burst: early-middle

Strength of growth: medium, upright
Growth of side-shoots: medium

Flowering time: late
Flowering strength: medium-high (reliable)

Leaf: - size: medium to large                  - shape: mostly 3-lobed to weakly 5-lobed,
                                                             slightly indented, blunt toothed
        - colour: 
        - surface undulation:                      - petiolar sinus: V-shape to closed

Grape bunch: - size: medium, cylindrical    - density: quite tight
Berries:        - size: medium-small           - shape: elongated
                   - skin colour: green gold, thick skins

Time of veraison: early-middle
Time of harvest: middle-late, separate selective harvesting of lowest bunches can be practiced (as with the Pinots)

Grape yield: medium-high
Must-weight: medium-high
Must-acidity: high

Wood ripening: good
Winter hardiness: medium to good
Wood colour: golden brown to red brown

Chlorosis resistance: 
Susceptibility to - Oidium: medium           - Peronospora: low
                       - Botrytis: low-medium
                       - Roter Brenner: 
                       - Phomopsis:                  - Stem-atrophy: medium

Preferred soil: all types but needs a lot of potash (K)
Suitable rootstocks: SO4, 5C. Not 5BB as this can cause millerandage.

Normal stem height: 
Normal row spacing: 1.8m to 2.0m, requires light and air so space well apart.
Vine spacing in the row: 1.6m, quite wide apart so the fruiting canes do not overlap and cause a dense leaf-wall.

Winter Pruning:       eyes/buds per sq. metre of land occupied by the plant.

Advantages: Ripens well even in poor climate years. Yields reliably every year.

Disadvantages: in some situations it can produce a 3rd and even a 4th cluster on a shoot. These bunches do not ripen as well so ideally need to be removed early (soon after flowering).

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