Christina Saint Laurent

About Christina Saint Laurent

Christina Saint Laurent sees organic grapes going through carbonic maceration. The result is a juicy red with sour cherry and cranberry, spices, and earth on the palate.

About Christina Netzel

Christina Netzl began her path towards natural winemaking as a young girl of 5 years old, working on her family’s farm and vineyard with her parents and grandparents. Her parents later focused the family business solely on grape growing and winemaking, building the winery up to the 28 hectares they operate today in the Carnuntum winemaking region, located just east of Vienna and north of the Neusidler see. Christina studied enology and wine management in London, getting to know wine styles from all over the world. In 2007, she returned to the winery to work with her parents, and after having two children became passionate about organic viticulture. They began the process of converting everything to organics in 2013 starting with soil treatments and elimination of herbicides, followed by eliminating pesticides and 100% organic vineyard management, and then finally organic production in the winery. In 2018 they began the official process of certifying organically. Over the last 10 years working at the winery, Christina has fallen in love with ancient winemaking practices and thus has now launched this natural line of wines we are proud to represent.

About Saint Laurent

Saint Laurent is an aromatic black grape variety planted throughout parts of central Europe. It is most commonly found in Austria’s key red-wine regions Niederösterreich and Burgenland. It is also the most widely planted red variety in the Czech Republic and is gaining popularity in Germany and other cooler wine-growing nations.

Saint Laurent wines tend to be dark purple in color, structured yet silky with a characteristic dark-cherry flavor (similar to Pinot Noir). Blackberries, smoke, and spice are also commonly exhibited. The wines are often matured in oak and show good aging ability.

Thanks to the success of the variety for producers in Germany’s Pfalz region and parts of Austria in terms of wine quality and financial return, Saint Laurent’s reputation is on the rise, as are plantings. While it remains a fairly obscure variety, producers in cooler wine-growing regions in the New World are also beginning to experiment – Canada and New Zealand are two such countries.

Saint Laurent has long been thought to be related to Pinot Noir. Some DNA profiling suggests that it is even a direct offspring, but this finding remains unsubstantiated and debate continues on whether there is a relationship. It is certain, however, that Saint-Laurent is a parent of Zweigelt (the other parent is Blaufrankisch).