Austria: Wachau, Kamptal and Burgenland's natural cellars

Austria is the wine country nearest my door: Vienna is an hour and a half from Brno, the Wachau two and a half. This is the route I built to show it in five days without hurrying, six to ten guests, Wednesday to Sunday, Vienna to Vienna. We start on the Danube terraces of the Wachau, turn north into the Kamptal for Riesling on Permian sandstone, drive south-east to the steppe lake of Burgenland for two of the country’s best-known natural farms, and finish in Vienna, where 588 hectares of vines still grow inside the city limits.

Six estates, chosen for the argument they make together: two Wachau classics, one of them biodynamic since 1971; an organic Kamptal house with 90 hectares; two Neusiedlersee farms that bottle with little or no added sulfur; a Viennese Heuriger with 65 hectares behind it. Austria is less polarised than France on this question, and I pour both sides without taking one; the longer case is in what I pour, natural and conventional.

Day 1: Vienna to Dürnstein and Mautern#

We leave Vienna at 09:00 and reach Dürnstein in about 1 h 10, the blue tower of the abbey below the castle ruin. The morning is on foot, up dry-stone terraces of Gföhler gneiss from the Danube at about 200 metres towards 450: an hour’s climb, or a shorter loop. Lunch is a Heuriger in Dürnstein, Zander from the river with a Grüner Veltliner Federspiel. At 15:00 we cross to Mautern. Nikolaihof stands on the foundations of a Roman fort; a synod met on this site in 985, the estate is documented in 1075, and the Saahs family has farmed it since 1894, biodynamically since 1971, the wines ageing in large old casks inside Roman and medieval walls. We taste Riesling Vom Stein Federspiel, Grüner Veltliner Im Weingebirge Smaragd and a Vinothek Riesling, released after 15 to 20 years in cask. Dinner is in the estate’s Weinstube, open from 17:00 on Wednesdays; the night is a small hotel in Dürnstein.

Day 2: Oberloiben and the road to Langenlois#

At 09:30 we are at F.X. Pichler in Oberloiben: a cellar of 2009 in Ried Klostersatz, some 20 hectares on the Kellerberg and Loibenberg, half Grüner Veltliner, half Riesling. Franz Xaver Pichler took over about 3 hectares in 1971; Lucas Pichler has run the cellar since 1999 and the estate since 2018. Steel, dry precision, Wachau DAC since 2020. Visits are by appointment and never guaranteed; I confirm each departure. Riesling Ried Kellerberg Smaragd beside Grüner Veltliner Ried Loibenberg Smaragd: gneiss against loess. Lunch is a Heuriger in Weissenkirchen, then 30 minutes through Krems to Langenlois. Bründlmayer has been in the town since 1581; Willi Bründlmayer has led it since 1980: 90 hectares from the Permian sandstone of the Heiligenstein to the loess of the Lamm, organic since 2019. We taste Sekt, three years on lees, Riesling Heiligenstein and Grüner Veltliner Lamm. Dinner is at the Heurigenhof Bründlmayer, a 16th-century house; the night is a hotel among the vines.

Day 3: Heiligenstein to Gols and Neusiedlersee#

The morning is a walk on the Heiligenstein above Zöbing: Permian desert sandstone, 250 to 270 million years old, under the Kamptal’s best Riesling. Then about two hours south-east, skirting Vienna, to Gols on the north-east shore of Neusiedlersee, a steppe lake 36 kilometres long and about a metre deep. Lunch is a Heuriger in the village. At 14:30 we climb to the Goldberg, where Claus Preisinger built his concrete-and-glass winery with a green roof in 2009. He took over about 3 hectares from his father around 2000 and farms some 19 today in 64 parcels of limestone and gravel, biodynamic since 2006 under respekt-BIODYN: spontaneous ferments, whole bunches, large casks and clay amphorae since 2009. Puszta Libre!, Zweigelt and St. Laurent served chilled; Kalkundkiesel white, fermented on its skins; a Blaufränkisch from the Edelgraben, sour cherry and iron. Forty minutes around the lake to Rust; dinner is paprika fish soup and Zander with a dry Furmint.

Day 4: Rust, Oggau and back to Vienna#

Rust before breakfast: baroque streets, the crowned R its barrels have carried since 1524, and in May the storks on the chimneys. The town bought its freedom in 1681 with 60,000 gold guilders and 500 Eimer of Ausbruch. Ten minutes north is Oggau. Gut Oggau is Eduard Tscheppe and Stephanie Tscheppe-Eselböck, who bought the farm in 2007 and work about 15 hectares of limestone and schist under Demeter: horses in some vineyards, spontaneous ferments in old casks, nothing fined or filtered, no added sulfur. The wines are a family with drawn faces, the youngest vines as children, the oldest as grandparents; we taste Theodora, Timotheus and Mechthild in that order. Ours is a private visit, arranged ahead. Lunch is a Buschenschank on the Leithaberg, then at 15:00 a family cellar in Rust for a glass of Ruster Ausbruch, botrytis from the autumn lake mists. Vienna is an hour away; the evening is yours, and I will book you a table.

Day 5: Nussberg and Stammersdorf#

At 09:30 we take tram D to Nussdorf and walk up the Nussberg, shell limestone with clay and marl, the city spread out below. The minibus then crosses the river to Stammersdorf, at the foot of the Bisamberg, where Wieninger has been a Heuriger family since after 1945. Fritz Wieninger took over the cellar in 1987, co-founded WienWein in 2006, the group that pushed through the Wiener Gemischter Satz DAC in 2013, bought Hajszan Neumann on the Nussberg in 2014, and farms about 65 hectares biodynamically under respekt-BIODYN. A Gemischter Satz is a field blend: at least three white varieties planted, picked and fermented together, none over half. We taste the DAC wine, then Ried Ulm from the Nussberg, dense and saline, beside a fresher Bisamberg Gemischter Satz, and finish with lunch at the Heuriger: Liptauer, Grammelschmalz, Blunzn, rye bread, and Gemischter Satz by the Achtel. We part at about 15:00, wherever in the city you need to be.

Who this tour is for#

Anyone who has drunk Grüner Veltliner for years and wants to see where it comes from; anyone who has met Gut Oggau and Preisinger on wine lists far from Burgenland and wants to stand in the vineyard; and anyone who assumes those are two different holidays. They are one: the classics here are not museum pieces and the natural farms are not amateurs. Couples, friends and solo travellers who like a long table. It does not suit anyone who needs the day timed to the minute; hosts talk, and I let them. For your own dates, a Styrian leg or a group of two to twelve, the route runs as a private tour. With a further weekend, the South Moravia weekend starts in Brno, an hour and a half from Vienna.

Practical notes#

Vienna is the start and the end. Schwechat airport is 25 minutes from the centre, Bratislava airport about an hour by road; from Brno, my base, it is 1 h 30 by road or train. I collect you from your Vienna hotel at 08:45 on Wednesday and drop you at your hotel, the main station or the airport by about 15:30 on Sunday; a flight after 18:00 is safe. Come the evening before; I will tell you where to drink.

Weather by departure. Early May is 18 to 22 °C by day, green vines, storks in Rust and asparagus on every menu. Late September into early October is harvest: Smaragd grapes still hanging in the Wachau, Sturm, the half-fermented must, poured in the Heurigen, 12 to 20 °C by day and cool by dusk.

Pack closed shoes for terraces and cellar steps, a layer for cellars at 10 to 12 °C, a rain jacket in any month and a hat for the Neusiedlersee sun. Austria uses the euro; cards work in towns, but Heurigen and farm-gate sales are often cash only. Rooms are small hotels, comfortable rather than grand. Deposits, single rooms and dietary needs are in the FAQ. To read before you come, start with biodynamic wine without the mysticism; four of the six estates farm that way, and none will preach at you.