The place: a capital with 588 hectares of vines#
Vienna is the only European capital with a wine region of real size inside its city limits: 588 hectares, most of it on two hills that face each other across the Danube. From Brno it is 90 minutes, which makes Vienna the closest foreign wine region to my door and the base for my Austria tour.
The southern hill is the Nussberg, with the Kahlenberg above it, in the 19th district. Below it lie the old wine villages the city swallowed without quite digesting: Nussdorf, where tram D ends; Heiligenstadt; Grinzing, the famous one; Sievering and Neustift am Walde, further into the Vienna Woods.
The northern hill is the Bisamberg, across the river in the 21st district, with Stammersdorf, Strebersdorf and Jedlersdorf at its foot. Stammersdorf keeps a proper Kellergasse, a lane of press houses with cellars dug into the loess behind them. It is quieter than Grinzing and I prefer it for an evening. The third pocket is Mauer, in the 23rd district on the south-western edge: small, easy to miss, and the source of some of the city’s most precise whites.
Terroir: shell limestone, loess and the Danube#
Two hills, two soils, and the wines tell them apart. The Nussberg is shell limestone with clay and marl: heavier ground, south-facing, warmed by the Danube below and sheltered by the Wienerwald behind. Wines from here are the fuller ones, and they age. Ried Ulm, Ried Rosengartl and Ried Preussen are the names to remember.
The Bisamberg is loess and sand on a long, gentle slope. It drains fast, warms early and gives lighter, fresher wines with more lift than weight. Mauer sits on limestone and gravel and behaves like a cooler cousin of the Nussberg.
The climate is Pannonian from the east, hot and dry in summer, with cool air sliding down from the Wienerwald at night. Altitude runs from about 170 metres at the river to about 400 on the upper Nussberg.
Grapes and styles: Wiener Gemischter Satz DAC#
The wine that defines Vienna is not a grape. Gemischter Satz, “mixed planting”, is a field blend: several white varieties planted together in one vineyard, picked on one day and fermented as one wine. It spread the risk of frost and rot across grapes that flower and ripen at different times. Grüner Veltliner, Riesling, Weißburgunder, Neuburger and Traminer are the usual partners; older parcels add Rotgipfler, Zierfandler, Sylvaner and vines nobody bothers to name.
In 2006 a group of growers formed WienWein to take the style seriously again, and from the 2013 vintage Wiener Gemischter Satz became a DAC. The rules are precise: at least three white varieties, planted together in one Vienna vineyard, harvested and fermented together; the largest variety no more than 50 per cent of the planting, the third-largest at least 10. A Gebietswein, the regional level, must be dry and show no dominant wood. Ortswein from Nussberg, Bisamberg or Mauer and Riedenwein from a named vineyard may be richer.
In the glass it tastes of a place rather than a variety: white pepper from the Veltliner, a line of acidity from the Riesling, weight and a floral note from the Pinot Blanc and Traminer. Young Gebietswein is the Heuriger wine, poured by the Achtel, an eighth of a litre, and cut with soda as a Gespritzter on hot afternoons. Nussberg Riedenwein is another animal, textured and saline, built for Tafelspitz.
There is also varietal Grüner Veltliner, Riesling, Weißburgunder and Chardonnay, some Pinot Noir, Zweigelt and St. Laurent, and traditional-method Sekt; the whites are the argument.
Producers to know: Wieninger, Christ, Mayer am Pfarrplatz#
Wieninger, Stammersdorf. Fritz Wieninger took over the family cellar at the foot of the Bisamberg in 1987, co-founded WienWein in 2006 and did as much as anyone to put Gemischter Satz on serious wine lists. About 65 hectares today, farmed biodynamically under the respekt-BIODYN group, of which he is co-president with Fred Loimer; the Demeter-certified Nussberg estate Hajszan Neumann has belonged to the house since 2014. The DAC Gemischter Satz is fresh and herbal; Ried Rosengartl and Ried Ulm from the Nussberg are the deep, saline benchmarks. Two seasonal Heurigen, in Stammersdorf and on the Nussberg; cellar visits by appointment.
Christ, Jedlersdorf. Rainer Christ runs the estate with his father Franz on the Bisamberg side: organic, a WienWein member and part of the ÖTW growers’ association. Bisamberg Gemischter Satz here is the lighter, loess-driven expression, a useful contrast to a Nussberg wine on the same table.
Mayer am Pfarrplatz, Heiligenstadt. A Heuriger in the house where Beethoven lodged in 1817, with vineyards on the Nussberg: Riesling and Gemischter Satz from the hill.
On the low-intervention side, Jutta Ambrositsch works small old parcels around the city and does very little in the cellar. I pour her Gemischter Satz beside a Wieninger Riedenwein as two honest readings of one hill. On that habit, see what I pour, natural and classic; on the farming, biodynamics without the mysticism.
Heuriger culture: what the pine bundle means#
The Heuriger exists because of a decree. On 17 August 1784 Joseph II allowed growers to sell their own wine and food at home without a tavern licence. “Heuriger” means this year’s wine, and also the place that serves it. A bundle of pine branches over the door and a sign reading “Ausg’steckt” tell you it is open; some houses open for a few weeks in rotation with their neighbours, others all year.
Vienna’s licence allows a hot buffet, where the Länder’s Buschenschank must stay cold. Expect Liptauer, Grammelschmalz, Blunzn, Presswurst, pickles and rye bread, and here also roast pork and Schnitzel. From mid-September there is Sturm, half-fermented must, cloudy, sweet and slightly dangerous; around 11 November the Gansl, roast goose with red cabbage. Many houses take cash only, “Nur Barzahlung”. My notes on visiting winemakers cover the rest.
What a day in Vienna looks like on tour#
We take tram D from the Ring to Nussdorf and walk up through the vines on the Nussberg, about an hour at a talking pace, with the city opening out behind us. Near the top I pour a Gebietswein and a Riedenwein Gemischter Satz side by side, so the hill explains itself before I do. Late morning, a tasting at one of the Nussberg or Heiligenstadt estates, then lunch in a Heuriger garden. In the afternoon we cross the river to the Bisamberg for the loess wines and the Stammersdorf Kellergasse, and the evening ends in a Stammersdorf Heuriger with a hot buffet and long tables.
On my Austria tour Vienna is where we meet and where we part. The route goes west to the Wachau and the Kamptal, east to Burgenland, and ends with a shorter version of this day on the last morning: the Nussberg walk and lunch at a Stammersdorf Heuriger. The full day above also works as a private day from Brno, out in the morning and home by midnight.
Practical: getting there and the best months#
Vienna is 90 minutes from Brno by car or train, and 25 minutes from its own airport. Inside the city, tram D reaches Nussdorf, tram 38 Grinzing and tram 31 Stammersdorf. No minibus is needed; everyone can drink.
The Heuriger gardens are at their best from May to October. September and October bring the harvest, the Sturm and the clearest views from the Nussberg; November brings the goose. Many houses close for weeks at a time, so I check the “Ausg’steckt” calendars before we go.
Read the Austria country guide for the wider picture. For what lies an hour north of the city, the Mikulov and Pálava guide picks up the story on the Moravian side of the border.
