The origin of this grape variety is not known with precision; it could have been brought from France by the Cistercian monks who founded much of the German wine industry along Rhine.

What is known is that has a long history in the wine-growing areas along the Rhine, where Orléans and Trollinger were common earlier than Riesling.

In the 19th century, it was widely used in Gemischter Satz plantation together with varieties such as Elbling, Heunisch, Riesling, Pinot gris, Silvaner and Traminer.

In the 1980s, professor Helmut Becker of the Geisenheim Grape Breeding Institute found some Orléans vines that were growing untended in Rüdesheimer Berg, and managed to propagate them.

The fact that it was once grown in excellent sites and was considered to give long-lived wines have most likely contributed to the ambition to save this variety for the future.