The country next door#
Austria grows about 44,000 hectares of vines, all in the east of the country, and seven vines in ten are white. Lower Austria, from the Danube valleys to the Weinviertel, has 26,700 hectares, Burgenland around the Neusiedlersee 11,500, Styria on the Slovenian border 5,100, and Vienna, the only European capital with a proper wine region inside its boundaries, 588. From my door in Brno the first Viennese vines are an hour and a half away and the Wachau terraces two and a half, so this is the wine country I cross into most often after my own.
Grüner Veltliner is a third of everything planted, and with Riesling it fills the terraces of the Wachau, Kamptal and Kremstal. Reds are the story of Burgenland, where Blaufränkisch and Zweigelt ripen beside a shallow steppe lake. Styria makes Sauvignon Blanc in humid hills, Vienna makes field blends, and the whole system runs under one of Europe’s strictest wine laws and eighteen DAC appellations.
The natural-versus-classic argument is quieter here than in France or Italy: many estates on either side farm organically or biodynamically, the two camps drink at the same Heurigen, and on my tables they stand side by side.
A short history in dates#
Charlemagne’s monasteries rebuilt Roman viticulture from 788, and two estates call themselves Austria’s oldest: Stift Klosterneuburg, founded in 1114, and Nikolaihof in Mautern, where a synod met in 985 and an estate was recorded in 1075. I let each make its claim and pour both. On 17 August 1784 Joseph II allowed growers to sell their own wine and food at home, and the Heuriger was born.
In 1922 Fritz Zweigelt crossed Blaufränkisch with St. Laurent at the Klosterneuburg school and gave the country its most planted red. The modern chapter starts badly: in 1985 some producers and merchants were caught sweetening wine with diethylene glycol, exports collapsed, and the wine law passed in its wake became one of Europe’s strictest. The recovery was built on dry whites and named vineyards: Vinea Wachau in 1983, the Wachau’s UNESCO listing in 2000, the first DAC in the Weinviertel from the 2002 vintage, and Thermenregion DAC in 2023, the eighteenth.
Grapes: Grüner Veltliner, Riesling, Blaufränkisch and Zweigelt#
Grüner Veltliner, GRUE-ner FELT-lee-ner, covers about 14,300 hectares: white pepper, green apple, lentil, a wine that is a spritzer at eleven percent and a twenty-year Smaragd at thirteen and a half. Riesling is the second white of the Danube valleys, dry here almost without exception, stone fruit and high acid on gneiss and Heiligenstein sandstone. Welschriesling, no relation, is Styria’s everyday white; Morillon is Styria’s Chardonnay, and Sauvignon Blanc its signature.
Zweigelt, TSVY-gelt, is 13 percent of the vineyard: cherry, soft tannin, the grape of the Neusiedlersee DAC and of most Gulasch dinners. Blaufränkisch, blau-FRENK-ish, is the serious red: sour cherry, spice and firm acid on the Leithaberg limestone, in Mittelburgenland and at Eisenberg. St. Laurent is the Pinot-like one, Blauer Wildbacher makes the sharp Schilcher rosé of West Styria, and Furmint is Rust’s historic grape. Gemischter Satz is not a grape but a method, several white varieties planted, picked and fermented together; Vienna wrote it into law in 2013.
The regions#
Wachau#
The Wachau is 36 kilometres of Danube gorge between Melk and Krems: 1,285 hectares of dry-stone terraces climbing from the river at about 200 metres to 450, on Gföhler gneiss above and loess below. Warm Pannonian air comes up the valley from the east, cool Waldviertel air down from the north-west, and the grapes ripen slowly into late October. Nikolaihof at Mautern, biodynamic since 1971 and ageing Riesling for years in old casks inside Roman walls, is where I begin. Two and a half hours from Brno, one from Vienna.
Kamptal and Kremstal#
North and east of the Wachau, the Kamptal and the Kremstal are warmer and more open: 3,567 and 2,242 hectares at 200 to 400 metres on loess, gravel and, on the Zöbinger Heiligenstein, a Permian desert sandstone some 250 million years old. Langenlois, usually described as Austria’s largest wine town, is home to the Bründlmayer family, there since 1581, whose Heiligenstein Riesling ages for twenty years. Both valleys have DACs for Grüner Veltliner and Riesling, and Langenlois makes serious Sekt. Two and a quarter hours from Brno.
Burgenland#
Burgenland is 11,538 hectares around the Neusiedlersee, a steppe lake 36 kilometres long and about a metre deep, ringed by reeds and storks, a UNESCO landscape since 2001. The west shore, the Leithaberg, puts Blaufränkisch on limestone and mica schist from Jois to Rust; the east shore, from Gols to Pamhagen, grows Zweigelt on gravel and black earth, and the Seewinkel’s autumn mists bring the botrytis for its sweet wines. This is also Austria’s natural-wine heartland: Gut Oggau on the west shore and Claus Preisinger above Gols are two of many. Fifty minutes from Vienna, two and a quarter hours from Brno.
Styria#
Styria is another climate altogether: 5,109 hectares of steep, small parcels at 300 to 600 metres on the Slovenian border, humid and warm, with 900 to 1,000 millimetres of rain and afternoon storms. Sauvignon Blanc leads in Südsteiermark, with Morillon, Welschriesling and Gelber Muskateller beside it, on Opok, a calcareous marl that looks like slate when dry. Wooden Klapotetz rattles stand in the vines from late July to November to keep the birds off. The Muster family above Leutschach, Demeter since 2003 and making amber wines since 2005, is my door into the Schmecke das Leben group. Under an hour from Graz, four and a quarter from Brno, so a route of its own.
Vienna#
Vienna keeps 588 hectares inside the city: the Nussberg above Nussdorf and Grinzing on shell limestone and marl, the loess of the Bisamberg across the Danube at Stammersdorf, and Mauer to the south. Wiener Gemischter Satz DAC, since 2013, requires at least three white varieties planted together in one Vienna vineyard, the largest at most half the blend. The Heuriger, a grower’s tavern that hangs a pine bundle over the door when it is “ausg’steckt”, is where the wine is drunk, by the quarter litre with a cold buffet. An hour and a half from Brno, 25 minutes from the airport, and my base for the Danube routes.
Natural and classic in Austria today#
The classic institutions are well organised. Vinea Wachau keeps its Steinfeder, Federspiel and Smaragd categories for dry, hand-picked whites without perceptible oak; Knoll, Hirtzberger and the Domäne Wachau cooperative are members, and F.X. Pichler has labelled under Wachau DAC since 2020. The ÖTW, founded in 1991, has classified its members’ single vineyards as Erste Lage since 2011.
The biodynamic middle is unusually wide. respekt-BIODYN, founded around 2007 as an Austrian alternative to Demeter, certifies estates from the classic Loimer, Hirsch and Wieninger to Preisinger on the natural side. Demeter has Nikolaihof, Gut Oggau, Muster and Meinklang, and Austria counted 1,431 hectares of biodynamic vines in 2024, more than three percent of the total. I have written about what biodynamics does and does not claim elsewhere.
The low-intervention end lives in Styria and Burgenland: Schmecke das Leben, “taste life”, is five Styrian farms with amber wines and amphorae between them, and around the Neusiedlersee it is Gut Oggau, Meinklang, Preisinger and a dozen more. Each May the Karakterre fair in Eisenstadt puts more than two hundred organic, biodynamic and natural producers from Central and Eastern Europe in one hall. What I pour, and why explains how a Wachau Smaragd and a chilled Gols Zweigelt end up on one table.
What arrives on the table#
Lunch is from 12:00, dinner from 18:30, the Heuriger buffet whenever you sit down. Wiener Schnitzel, veal in breadcrumbs fried in clarified butter with warm potato salad, wants a Grüner Veltliner Federspiel; that pairing is the national default and I do not argue with it. Tafelspitz, boiled beef with apple horseradish, and Zander from the Neusiedlersee take a Riesling Smaragd. Roast pork with caraway and the Martinigansl around 11 November want Blaufränkisch; Gulasch wants Zweigelt.
In the Wachau the apricot, Wachauer Marille, protected since 1996, ends the meal as Marillenknödel. In Styria the plate is Backhendl, breaded chicken with potato salad in dark green pumpkin-seed oil, and Käferbohnensalat, scarlet runner beans in the same oil, with Sauvignon Blanc or Morillon. At a Heuriger the Jause comes from the cold counter, Liptauer, Grammelschmalz, pickles and rye bread, with Gemischter Satz by the Achtel. Ruster Ausbruch closes with Kaiserschmarrn or blue cheese.
When to go and how to get there#
The first half of April brings apricot blossom to the Wachau; mid-May to June and September to mid-October are the months I book. July and August are hot, 26 to 28 degrees in Vienna and more by the lake, and the Wachau is crowded. Styria is at its best in October with the Klapotetz, Sturm and roast chestnuts; Burgenland’s sweet-wine cellars are worth November.
Vienna’s airport is the gateway: 25 minutes to the centre, 50 to Gols, an hour to Krems or Rust. Bratislava is 45 minutes from Gols; Graz airport is 35 to 45 minutes from the Styrian wine road. Austria is euro and Schengen, the motorways need a digital vignette, and Heurigen and farm gates are often cash only: “Nur Barzahlung”. The drink-drive limit is 0.5 grams per litre, so we move by minibus with a driver.
How I tour Austria#
My scheduled Wachau, Kamptal and Burgenland tour starts in Vienna and takes the Danube terraces first and the lake second: Grüner Veltliner and Riesling on gneiss and loess, then Blaufränkisch, chilled Zweigelt and field blends around the Neusiedlersee, with Zander, Schnitzel and a Heuriger evening between them. Styria, four and a quarter hours from Brno, works as a private route from Graz.
Because I live in Brno, Austria pairs well with South Moravia: the Weinviertel starts where Znojmo’s vines end, and a Pálava Welschriesling next to a Styrian one makes an afternoon’s conversation. If you want a Vienna Heuriger evening, a Karakterre weekend or a Blaufränkisch cellar in Mittelburgenland, private tours for two to twelve people start with a message.
