Sankt Laurent: The Serious Pinot Noir Swap Hiding in Austria

Sankt Laurent is pronounced ZANKT loh-RENT.

If you like Pinot Noir but wince at what it costs, this is the grape to know. Sankt Laurent is a Pinot descendant from Austria, and it gives you the silk, the dark cherry, and the savory lift for a fraction of Burgundy's ask.

What it tastes like

Think Pinot Noir with the lights turned down a shade. The fruit runs to dark cherry and ripe plum rather than the bright cranberry of a cool-climate Pinot, and underneath sits something earthy and savory: forest floor, dried herbs, a little clove.

The texture is where the family resemblance lands hardest. Sankt Laurent is medium-bodied, the acidity keeps it lively, and the tannins are fine and powdery instead of grippy. It glides. That silkiness is exactly what people pay Burgundy money for, and here it comes without the ceremony.

Serve it slightly cool, around 60 degrees. It rewards a chill the way good Pinot does, and it will sit happily next to roast chicken, mushrooms, duck, or a plate of charcuterie.

A Pinot child that raised Zweigelt

Here is the lineage that makes wine people sit up. DNA analysis confirms Sankt Laurent is an offspring of Pinot Noir. It is, quite literally, in the family. It also went on to become a parent itself: crossed with Blaufränkisch in 1922, it produced Zweigelt, now Austria's most-planted red. So the grape most drinkers have never heard of is both Pinot's child and the parent of a wine you have probably already had.

The name traces to Saint Lawrence, whose feast day falls in mid-August, around the time the grapes begin to color. Its home is the Thermenregion south of Vienna and the warm flats of Burgenland, and it has a second stronghold across the border in the Czech Republic, where it goes by Svatovavřinecké and covers a meaningful slice of the vineyards.

Why is it overlooked? Partly geography, partly temperament. Sankt Laurent buds early and ripens unevenly, which makes growers nervous, so acreage stayed small while Austria bet on the sturdier Zweigelt. The grape that needs care got passed over for the one that behaves. Underdogs usually are.

Bottles to look for

A handful of Austrian producers take Sankt Laurent seriously, and their wines reach the US. Rosi Schuster in Burgenland makes a benchmark version. Erich Sattler bottles a well-regarded example from the same region. Look also for the classic names of the Thermenregion and Burgenland who list a St. Laurent alongside their Zweigelt and Blaufränkisch.

When you shop, check the label for "St. Laurent" or "Sankt Laurent" as the named variety, and lean toward single-varietal bottlings rather than blends if you want to taste the grape clearly. Austria and the northern Burgenland are the safest bets for quality.

The honest part: Sankt Laurent can disappoint when it is picked underripe or stretched for volume. A thin, green example will taste like a Pinot that never quite woke up, and there are some on shelves. Buy from a named grower, not the cheapest bottle wearing the name, and you avoid the trap. When it is made with care, it is one of the best value-to-silk trades in red wine, which is exactly why it belongs on a list like this one.

Where to buy

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Here's the honest part: varietal Sankt Laurent is scarce on US shelves, and it hides behind wines merely named "Laurent" in most search boxes. Your best route is a shop with a serious Austrian section, or an importer who works Burgenland and the Thermenregion directly. If you want an Austrian red in the glass tonight while you hunt the parent down, its own offspring — Zweigelt — is easy to find and shares the dark-cherry, silky character.

browse Zweigelt on Wine.com →

— Chris Berry

If you're switching from a famous grape

If Pinot Noir is your default pour, Sankt Laurent is the swap that asks the least and gives the most: same silk, same dark-fruit-and-earth register, a friendlier price, and an actual genetic tie to the grape you already love. Pour it for anyone who thinks they only drink Pinot and watch them not notice the difference.

Start with Wines Like Pinot Noir, then see the full playbook in Order This Instead.

Part of Lesser-Known Wines: 17 Obscure Grapes Worth Switching To — the full underdog-swap guide.