red grape · regional staple
St. Laurent
Alsace, France
Say it
sanloh·rahn
Silent 't' in Saint (French); American wine pros use the French form. German 'Sankt Laurent' renders roughly ZAHNKT LAH-ront.
On the palate
red cherryblack cherryblackberryvioletbaking spicechocolate
How you spot it blind: Deeply colored Pinot offspring with silky tannins and morello-cherry aromatics
The story
First written down · 1863, Klosterneuburg, Austria
DNA confirms Pinot Noir parentage (second parent unknown); first formally catalogued at Klosterneuburg in 1863, then used by Fritz Zweigelt in 1922 to breed Zweigelt (× Blaufränkisch), now Austria's most-planted red.
Family tree: Pinot Noir × unknown
Where it lives
Thermenregion, Austria · Burgenland, Austria · Moravia, Czech Republic · Pfalz, Germany · Rheinhessen, Germany
Shows up as
still redrosésparkling
If you like this, try
Also answers to Saint Laurent, Sankt Laurent.
Shop our St. Laurent bottles