St. Laurent S
⏳ Drinking Window
Typically best enjoyed 3–10 years from the vintage release.
🍽️ Food & Wine Pairings
Roasted duck, venison stew, wild mushroom risotto
✨ Technical Specifications
Weingut Bernhart's St. Laurent 'S' represents a masterful expression of a grape variety with deep historical roots in Central Europe. Named after Saint Lawrence's Day on August 10th—the traditional date when the berries begin to turn color—St. Laurent thrives in the unique cross-border terroir of Schweigen. Grown on limestone-rich 'Kalkmergel' soils that straddle the German-French border, the vines benefit from a warm microclimate tempered by cool breezes from the nearby Vosges Mountains. The 'S' designation signifies a premium selection of the estate's finest fruit. Bernhart crafts this wine using traditional skin fermentation followed by patient aging in French oak barriques, resulting in a deeply colored, velvety red that marries dark forest berry fruit with a complex, mineral-driven structure.
🍾 About the Producer
Weingut Bernhart is situated in Schweigen-Rechtenbach along the southernmost fringe of the Pfalz, right at the French frontier near the historic Deutsches Weintor. While the family's agricultural roots date back centuries, estate bottling commenced under Willi and Wilma Bernhart in 1971, followed by their accession to the VDP in 2004 and formal organic certification in 2012. Today led by Gerd and Sabine Bernhart, the estate commands a singular cross-border terroir: approximately two-thirds of its roughly 20 hectares of vineyards are technically situated on French soil in Alsace, governed by special bilateral treaties that allow the wines to bear German designations. The viticultural backbone rests on dense, fossil-rich limestone, calcareous marl, and clay deposits across benchmark cru plots such as the Schweigener Sonnenberg. Winemaking emphasizes spontaneous fermentation, lees contact, and judicious wood aging, generating deeply structured, mineral-driven white and red expressions epitomized by their Kalkmergel and Grosses Gewächs bottlings.
🍇 Grapes
St. Laurent