St Laurent - Any Excellent, "Serious" Examples?

Did a bit of searching and found some posts with mentions of Solminer and Cruse, but sparse discussions.

Has anyone seen/tasted an excellent, “serious” example of this grape? I’ve had a “good for its price” rendition by Meinklang a few times, and tasted a few from some producers that I thought were not especially refined. Curious to see what people have seen!

Easily the best I’ve had from California is from a small and fairly new producer called March Wines. They source their fruit from Ricci Vineyard in Carneros. If you can find it, give it a try.

Not sure if this fits your definition of serious, but A wine buyer talked me into a Glatzer St Laurent from Austria. I don’t have any left, but I very much enjoyed the bottles.

Bründlmayer and Gobeslburg are possibilities, Reinisch by reputation. These are all meant to be “serious” wines, not Tuesday night pizza wines, but I think of St Laurent as closer to Mencia than to Pinot Noir. Too many rough edges to be Grand Cru.

Interesting! I’m in San Francisco so there is a chance I’d be able to find some. Thanks for the heads up!

What did you enjoy about them?

Haven’t seen these yet, Bründlmayer is the only one I’m familiar with (and only for Riesling). Yes, I’m a bit curious about that myself, if the grape actually has the potential for a “great” wine, but I haven’t seen many of the “higher-end/serious” bottlings around! I mean, I recently saw a $70 bottle of Keller Silvaner so who knows what can happen in this world, you know?

Can vouch for these. The wines do need some aging, however, because they can be a tad oaky in their youth.

Planning on opening my 2010 Gobelsburg Haidegrund somewhere in the near future.

MattRorick of Forlorn-Hope makes one of the best in Calif. His was the first one. Again, from Ricci grapes in Carneros.
Tom

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For me the top and most serious Sankt Laurents are from Gerhard Pittnauer (in Gols, Burgenland).

His basic is great, but the single vineyard bottlings Altenberg or Rosenberg are truly outstanding. My favourite used to be his “old vines” (Alte Reben) Sk. Laurent but sadly it’s from a vineyard that doesn’t exist any more.

I would also recommend Heinrich and Andreas Gsellmann. Gols/Neusiedlersee in general is the place in Austria for this variety. For me in Niederösterreich it is a bit of a diversion.

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That´s right, I just had the Glatzer St.Laurent Alte Reben (old vines) 2018, it won a price at the Falstaff mag. - really good and satisfying for the 18 € I paid. I wouldn´t call it really great, but it has potential to gain more complexity over the next 3-5 years and drink even better.
Neighbouring Austrian St.Laurent can really be good, as can be their Pinot noirs (Blauburgunder).

I found them a lighter to medium body; fruit forward, plump & juicy with cherry, nice balance with acidity; didn’t note any tannin; medium on finish. Thought they were closer to Beaujolais or Grenache than Pinot Noir, and would pair well with appetizers.

have had extensive experience with the variety – selling it, drinking it, critiqueing it –
Pinot Noir’s kinky cousin –

the best Sankt Laurent that i know of are Umathum, Schloss Gobelsburg, and Rosi Schuster (currently Hannes Schuster)
Pittnauer certainly fine,
Gobelsburg the most PN-like and the Niederösterreich exception to the rule of Gols
although Schuster is on the other side of the lake in Sankt Margarethen…

in addition to its basic complexities, Sankt L can absorb a level of spice that would challenge a mountain Zinfandel

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Actually, Forlorn Hope no longer makes St. Laurent - the 2017 vintage was the last for it. Charley Johnson and Maura Christoffers of March Wines may have taken over the block of vines that used to go to Forlorn Hope - I believe their first vintage of St. Laurent was the 2018. They make a Rosé of St. Laurent in addition to the red.

march.jpg

Just had a Rosi Schuster within the past few weeks. Very tasty.

I get Californians supporting California, but it seems strange not to immerse yourself in the real McCoy if your goal is to discover “serious excellence”.

RT

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Filomena has a Ricci St. Laurent. Haven’t heard from Luke in some time.

Richard,
I like the RosiSchuster quite a bit. When we visited Hannes, we gifted him a btl of the F-H. He later professed to liking it.

Why would anybody drink Calif Zin when they can immerse themselves in Croatian Tribidrag?? Because they taste different? Maybe it’s that terroir thing everyone babbles on about??
Tom

Tom…that’s a silly comparison. Zinfandel has, pretty much unarguably, reached it’s peak (“serious excellence”) in California…including all suspected forerunners. St. Laurent and a boatload of other varietals, not so much.

Turning your analogy around…why not stick with Gloria Ferrer and Schramsberg and skip Champagne altogether?

RT

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Don’t think it’s quite so silly, Richard. Your comparison on Schramsberger/Champagne to mean much with me. I will try them both. I’m an equal-opportunity wine drinker.

What you were originally saying/implying is that the World’s greatest St.Laurent comes from the Burgenland. So why bother trying any from Calif?
That’s what I don’t agree with. True…the best St.Laurents I’ve had have come from the Burgenland. No argument there. But that doesn’t mean that
I won’t try StLaurent from Calif (even though I oft have to pay more). We don’t have a lot of data on StLaurent from Calif. Maybe…just maybe…there will one day be a great
StLaurent from Calif. No reason not to take data points, though.

It’s the same argument we have trouble with in NEB. Some argue that the greatest Nebbs only come from Barolo/Barbesco. So why try any from Val d’Aosta/Valtelline/AltoPiemonte/
Calif/WashState/Virginia?? Maybe…just maybe…great Nebb can come from those mentioned regions? But those folks will never know… unless they hear it from a Monktown Attourney.
Tom

Fun discussion – I was actually worried this thread would just die due to lack of interest so good to see some fighting spirit in here!

Richard, I understand your point; the same way that if I were to want to better “understand” Pinot Noir, I’d have to at least immerse briefly in Burgundy. But I generally agree with Tom – the data points are pretty sparse and hey, California has shown itself surprisingly good at times with these relatively underappreciated grapes (the wave of popularity in old-vine Carignan was very enjoyable). The best thing about globalization of wine is that I won’t have to choose, and will probably be happier with having the comparison. For what it’s worth, I’ve had a similar experience recently with Syrah – enjoyed many of them from the Northern Rhone, but have been astonished at the quality coming out of California these days – it’s always good to have that knowledge and choice.



I think these experiences show the wall I’ve been hitting in my research – these sound like good wines, but are they the wines you will be pulling out for a special meal? I’m very thankful for all the recommendations so far though, many names I have not heard of before. Looking forward to doing some reading!

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^
i have even been known to build a special meal around a favourite SL…

I will certainly try to join the dark side!