WTN - First experience with an unusual grape: St. Laurent

I for the most part have enjoyed my occasional meeting with such central European varieties as Blaufrankish and Zweigelt. Last night, I had for the first time a grape that to my palate is the most unusual of them: a St. Laurent, from Austria. It happens that Zweigelt is actually a cross of Blaufrankish and St. Laurent, so I've now met the "whole family." In short, a positive experience and an excellent wine. I'll be happy to have St. Laurent cross my path again, though I confess I might not seek it out.



Zantho, St. Laurent, Burgenland 2006
My first experience with this grape. Dark ruby. A rather stinky nose, but with some excellent components, notably showing the same wet gravel and tobacco notes that one finds in Haut-Brion, with dark fruit, a faint whiff of flowers (roses perhaps?), and a very prominent note of lemon. On the palate, cherry, dominate notes of tart lemon/citrus, dark, tarry plum, a faint hint of flowers, then very earthy wet gravel and tobacco notes. Medium-full bodied. The combination of prominent lemon acidity with a generous earthy character pushes the limits of conventional balance, but there is good quality and character in this wine, with excellent aromatic components. On the balance I like it quite a bit, and in its best moments I would give it an Exceptional (90 - 93) rating, but one does have to make some allowances, and meet it on its own terms. Drink now. Excellent / Exceptional (89 - 91). [6/9/10]

Sounds like this saw quite a bit of oak? For the ones with less obvious oak, I've seen an aromatic kinship with Pinot Noir. FWIW, in case you didn't notice it, we recently fun tasting of the grape, TNs here. I've become quite a fan of the style with no obvious oak. Come to think of it, I've become quite a fan of Austrian reds in general when they go easy on the oak.

Sounds like this saw quite a bit of oak? For the ones with less obvious oak, I've seen an aromatic kinship with Pinot Noir. FWIW, in case you didn't notice it, we recently fun tasting of the grape, TNs here. I've become quite a fan of the style with no obvious oak. Come to think of it, I've become quite a fan of Austrian reds in general when they go easy on the oak.

Oak? It didn't strike me as having an obvious oak influence. I've got a bit left - will have another taste with that in mind, and report back. I did sort of peripherally notice your thread on St. Laurent, but didn't have a look - but have done so now - you really don't like oak in this grape, huh? Aromatic kinship with PN? Maybe the suggestion in your thread of Gevrey would make sense. Like I said, I'll give it another go and see what I think.

For the record, I really like a good Lemberger/Blaufrankish. Zweigelt's good too, and I can see what it got from each grape now. I think I might prefer it to St. Laurent.

[David M. Bueker]

Doesn't read like an oaky note to me. What strikes you as oak influence Otto?

Doesn't read like an oaky note to me. What strikes you as oak influence Otto?

Reading through Otto's notes, there appears to be some correlation between oak and dark fruit flavors, and Otto appears to interpret this as causative correlation, although there are several examples he notes with dark fruit flavors and no oak influence, so with all due respect Otto, it isn't obvious to me that your notes bare that out, but then my experience here is extremely limited (to say the least).

Anyway, having drank some more with a focus on identifying any oak influence, all I can say is that the wine is not inconsistent with having spent some time in oak, but if there truly is an oak influence here, its not obtrusive - but I must say that I am not sensitive to oak in a red wine unless it is obtrusive, and so you will very rarely see me note oak in a red wine, even though it might be obvious to others.