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 Celts and Ancient Rome, Roman eras. Approximately 60 percent of German wine is produced in the st ...

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 approximately 8,0 ...

crossing of the species ''

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

'', that was created in 1931 with the crossing of Frühburgunder (Pinot Précoce noir) and Trollinger (Schiava Grossa). It was created by August Herold at the grape breeding institute in Weinsberg 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 Province of Hohenzollern, Hohenzollern, two other histo ...

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 Jura, Swabian Alb and embedded in 5 valleys. It is a town in the Göppingen (district), district of Göppingen in Baden-Württemberg in southern Germany. The name relates ...

. 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 to produce the much more successful

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

. The variety

Hegel Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (27 August 1770 – 14 November 1831) was a 19th-century German idealism, German idealist. His influence extends across a wide range of topics from metaphysical issues in epistemology and ontology, to political phi ...

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