Helfensteiner is a dark-skinned

German wine German wine is primarily produced in the west of Germany, along the river Rhine and its tributaries, with the oldest plantations going back to the Ancient Rome, Roman era. Approximately 60 percent of German wine is produced in the state of Rhine ...

grape A grape is a fruit, botanically a berry, of the deciduous woody vines of the flowering plant genus '' Vitis''. Grapes are a non- climacteric type of fruit, generally occurring in clusters. The cultivation of grapes began perhaps 8,000 years a ...

crossing of the species ''

Vitis vinifera ''Vitis vinifera'', the common grape vine, is a species of flowering plant, native to the Mediterranean region, Central Europe, and southwestern Asia, from Morocco and Portugal north to southern Germany and east to northern Iran. There are curr ...

'', that was created in 1931 with the crossing of Frühburgunder (Pinot Précoce noir) and

Trollinger Trollinger, Schiava, or Vernatsch, is a red German/Italian wine grape variety that was likely first originally cultivated in the wine regions of South Tyrol and Trentino, but today is almost exclusively cultivated on steep, sunny locations in t ...

(Schiava Grossa). It was created by

August Herold August Karl Herold (August 7, 1902 in Neckarsulm – January 8, 1973 in Neckarsulm) was a German grape breeder. Herold graduated from the Agricultural College Hohenheim in 1925, worked at a grape breeding station in Naumburg 1926–1928 and ...

at the grape breeding institute in

Weinsberg Weinsberg (South Franconian: ''Weischberg'') is a town in the north of the state of Baden-Württemberg in Germany. It was founded around 1200 and is situated in the Heilbronn district. The town has about 11,800 inhabitants. It is noted for its win ...

in the

Württemberg Württemberg ( ; ) is a historical German territory roughly corresponding to the cultural and linguistic region of Swabia. The main town of the region is Stuttgart. Together with Baden and Hohenzollern, two other historical territories, Württ ...

region.Vitis International Variety Catalogue: Helfensteiner
, accessed on October 12, 2009 J. Robinson ''Jancis Robinson's Wine Course'' Third Edition pg 140 Abbeville Press 2003 The name of the variety is derived from that of the castle ruin Helfenstein close to

Geislingen an der Steige Geislingen an der Steige is surrounded by the heights of the Swabian Alb and embedded in 5 beautiful valleys. It is a town in the district of Göppingen in Baden-Württemberg in southern Germany. The name relates to its location "on the climb ...

. A relatively small amount of Helfensteiner is cultivated in Württemberg, in 2008 (and less than 1 ha in the rest of Germany combined). It produces red wines of a fruity character, and rosé wines. The reason for the variety's limited popularity with growers is its very variable yield, which is due to its susceptibility to flowering problems. Helfensteiner was later, in 1955, crossed by Herold with

Heroldrebe Heroldrebe is a red German wine grape variety produced by crossing Blauer Portugieser and Lemberger. It was created by August Herold at the grape breeding institute in Weinsberg in the Württemberg region in 1929, and was named after him. On ...

to produce the much more successful

Dornfelder Dornfelder is a dark-skinned variety of grape of German origin used for red wine.

. The variety Hegel shares the same parentage as Dornfelder.

Synonyms

Helfensteiner is also known under its breeding code Weinsberg S 5332 and the synonyms Blauer Weinsberger and Helfensteyner.

References

{{reflist Red wine grape varieties