I just spent a wine-centric week in Austria and thought I’d share a few notes that people find helpful in the future. The takeaway is that Austria, particularly South Styria, is a wonderful place in which to be a wine tourist. (Should this be in the Travel section? It’s mostly about wine–but I never know what makes most sense.)
We flew into Vienna and after a breakfast stop made our way to my only appointment of the day, Weingut Turk just outside of Krems. I had not previously had the wines, but they appeared well-regarded from multiple sources, were gruner specialists right on my route, and answered in the affirmative when I asked about a tasting.
We met up with two friends who live in Belgium in the parking lot and were welcomed by Alex, the 26 year old son who clearly has an active role in the business of the winery, and he started pouring wines in a low-key tasting room next to the winery. The initial 11 euro gruner was excellent, and it was all uphill from there. Tasted a number of single vineyard gruners, a delicious riesling, and a truly excellent zweigelt eiswein. Purchased the Thurnerberg and Frechau gruners, but wish I could have loaded up on these wines.
Alex was a great host who was deeply knowledgeable about his family’s wines, and at one point his dad, winemaker/proprietor Franz popped by to say hello. My favorite kind of tasting.
The next day we mostly spent on bikes between Krems and Spitz so wine time was minimal, although we did make it up to the regional vinothek, Ursin Haus in Langenlois. I love these kinds of places–Ursin Haus had 100s of bottles for sale, all from the Kamptal area, and you can taste literally anything for a Euro or two. They also typically have a winemaker/winery of the day, and this time it was someone pouring 4 different wines from Hirsch. Very nice wines–walked out with the 2023 Ried Lamm Gruner.
Affordable, delicious dinner at Wachauerstube Loiben with a couple of nice bottles I foolishly forgot to take a picture of so have already forgotten.
If you find yourself in the area, we stayed at the holiday house of Weingut Schmidl in Durnstein, and it was great. The Wachau Valley is gorgeous, and while Durnstein is clearly on the river cruise tour stops, Schmidl is jusssst outside of town. They couldn’t do a tasting as they were in the middle of harvest, but gave us a key to the wine tasting area with an honor fridge. Bottle of Smaragd riesling Kuss Den Pfenning was very nice.
Left the Wachau headed to Graz, and in researching the trip saw that we’d be passing through the Thermenregion, which has a number of well-regarded wineries and a specialization in rotgipfler. Sold! I made an appointment at Weingut Alphart in Traiskirchen and a family member led us through a tasting of about a dozen wines. I liked the rotgipfler more than my wife, so we walked out with a bottle of the Chardonnay Tagelsteiner, but the wines were top to bottom very nice and well-priced.
Next, an overnight stop in Austria’s second-largest city, Graz, which seemed very vibrant, clean and cool. Dinner at Der Steirer with a bunch of their well-priced and fun by the glass selections.
Now on to South Styria and ready to taste some serious sauvignon blancs. First stop was at Erwin Sabathi, just outside of Leutschach. The first stop set the tone for the rest of the region, with a lot of wines, nice glassware and a willingness to pour whatever. Our host had a bunch of older bottles open, including some grand cru 2013 and 2015 chards, and wow, they were all drinking great. Settled on a bottle of the Sauvignon Blanc Possnitzberg, but, as had been the case at other stops, could have gone deep if I had enough space in the Wine Check.
Next was Lackner Tinnacher. More great chards and SB, along with compelling muskateller. Then, probably my favorite tasting of the trip, at Tement along the border with Slovenia. Once again, the friendly host asked “What would you like to taste?” and I basically said something like “whatever you recommend” and we worked our way multiple chards, muskatellers, some reds and a bunch of outstanding sauvignon blancs, including the 2018 Ried Zieregg XT–the current release which spends 78 months in cask before bottling. These were wow wines with SB profiles unlike anything I’ve had before. Left with the Zieregg Kar SB here.
Tement was pouring in Josephine Hutte glasses, which I had never seen before. Very cool and lightweight. No room for more glasses at my house (and not cheap) but fun to taste out of.
After a brief detour down to Maribor, Slovenia, where the biggest tourist attraction seems to be the allegedly oldest productive grape vine in the world, we checked into our inn, Liepert’s in Leutschach. This is four rooms right in the middle of a charming small town, with a Michelin star restaurant of the same name attached. I typically avoid starred places when traveling–too expensive, too fussy, too long–just not how I like to eat. But staying right upstairs, it seemed silly not to, and we did 6 superb courses with the optional wine pairing. A splurge but an outstanding experience worth every penny. The next morning, our waitress/chef/inn keeper is helping her daughter with homework at the table in the restaurant downstairs. Definitely felt like you were staying with the family–in the best possible sense.
Spent the bulk of the next day on e-bikes winding around the incredible Styrian scenery, making a loop from Leutschach to Gamlitz, passing endless road hikers and roadside stands selling the fresh “Sturm”. Drove to a huge regional wine store and tasting center, Vinofaktur, to do some browsing and pick up some bottles where we didn’t have time to visit wineries, and then Sattlerhof, another well-regarded winery and inn in the area. Again, “what would you like to taste?” followed by a number of smoking single vineyard SBs and chards. Should be on any visitor’s itinerary.
South Styria is a real paradise for wine tasting, and remains seemingly off the radar for U.S. tourism. The scenery feels like the prettiest of the Piedmont, the people are very friendly, the wine is sensational, and fwiw, I paid nothing to taste at any stop, even as every place had great glassware, LOTS of wine available to taste, and welcoming service. Moreover, at every single stop in Austria, it’s not an exaggeration to say that in early October my wife and I were the only people at the winery tasting wine. I bought bottles at every place we visited, but the only place we paid a tasting fee in all of Austria was at Alphart, which I had booked through a third party, and was happy to pay the 15 euros per person given the quality of wine and personal attention.
But on to the final day in Austria, ~30 minutes outside of Vienna in Burgenland, where I had arranged for a tasting at Paul Achs in Gols. The man himself greeted us and gave us a brief cellar tour, before taking us to a tasting room, and, after apologizing for only having two hours for us (ha ha), poured us a range of his wines. I loved the wines here, from the 13 Euro zweigelt to the 74 euro Altenberg blaufrankisch.
One highlight was a 2016 Ungerberg blaufrankish next to the 2023, as things seemed to be on a really compelling aging curve 10 years in. Left here with an Ungerberg blaufrankish and Altenberg chardonnay. Paul was a wealth of regional knowledge, as you’d expect, and really generous with his time and wine.
We stayed in Podersdorf, right along Lake Neusiedl, and the community was fairly quiet in early October, and I had rare trip planning regret as I wondered if we should have just stayed in Vienna for the last night. Still, a great dinner at the Dankbarkeit Gasthaus and a mere 30 minutes from the Vienna airport for the next morning.
Really can’t say enough good things about Austria for the wine tourist. I do wish I had spend more time in the Wachau, and consumed more riesling, but tradeoffs had to be made somewhere, and in the end it was as nice as any wine-centric trip we’ve taken to Europe.