4 ms·

There is a wine grape varietal called St. Laurent which is cousin of well known Pinot Noir varietal and it originated from Burgundy, but curently you will find

by dejv 6y ago

There is a wine grape varietal called St. Laurent which is cousin of well known Pinot Noir varietal and it originated from Burgundy, but curently you will find it mostly only in Austria, Slovakia and Czech Republic. It is interesting grape, but there are many problems with it: it is very vigorous so it take quite a lot of work to tend and the bunches are big so they tend to squeeze, crack and rot. Thanks to cultivation dificulties as well as bad image from previous times (thanks to big yields it use to be used for poducing cheap table wines) make this varietal slowly dying: old blocks are being replanted by other varietals. I think it is a pitty as St. Laurent wine is very interesting and quite memorable. Luckily I've bought few blocks with old vines and I am selecting plants with loose bunches and am trying to create new clone with more favorable growing characteristic.

abendy 6y ago
I love this. Are you using any techniques facilitated by tech?
- dejv 6y ago
  Of course! I do hang NFC tags around preselected vines and I did wrote small iOS app that after scanning the tag I am able to attach photos, labels or other metadata that are interesting from breeder perspecitve. I am also able to track lineages and compare the stability of attributes I am interested in. Most other breeders use pen and paper and they are fine, but hey I am programmer and I am going to write software.
nonick 6y ago
I have never heard of this grape variety before, now I read this and the next thing I see is Lidl's next week's wine offer for St. Laurent/Spätburgunder wine. I will give it a try!
- dejv 6y ago
  It is definitely a niche varietal, planted area is still shrinking, especially in my home of Czech republic where it was most planted red grape varietal, but there is growing interest among high end growers in Austria so I think the varietal has some future among wine geeks.

by dejv 6y ago

abendy 6y ago

I love this. Are you using any techniques facilitated by tech?

dejv 6y ago
Of course! I do hang NFC tags around preselected vines and I did wrote small iOS app that after scanning the tag I am able to attach photos, labels or other metadata that are interesting from breeder perspecitve. I am also able to track lineages and compare the stability of attributes I am interested in. Most other breeders use pen and paper and they are fine, but hey I am programmer and I am going to write software.

nonick 6y ago

I have never heard of this grape variety before, now I read this and the next thing I see is Lidl's next week's wine offer for St. Laurent/Spätburgunder wine. I will give it a try!

dejv 6y ago
It is definitely a niche varietal, planted area is still shrinking, especially in my home of Czech republic where it was most planted red grape varietal, but there is growing interest among high end growers in Austria so I think the varietal has some future among wine geeks.