The Wine Tour

The Wine Tour Finding the home of Austria's speciality wines

Everyone knows Austria for its mountains, Mozart and the Sound of Music. But travel east and you find a very different Austria.

Vineyards are the big attraction...and, of course, the wine

Between the fields and vineyards, there is a big network of farm roads and lanes, perfect for cycling

As a result of the pandemic, we had decided to stay in Austria for the time being and revisit areas renowned for their speciality wines and where we had not cycled for many years.

The banks of the Danube were alive with wild flowers - and the usually crowded bike trail was empty

Riding around the Wagram, just north of the Danube, we came to our first "Kellergasse" - a lane of privately-owned wine cellars

We were invited in to see the cellar of this man who had dug it out of the hillside himself - by hand

The Kellergassen are a cultural highlight of the Weinviertel - a wine-growing area north of Vienna

Here families make and store their own wine, and spend sunny evenings drinking with friends

There are over 1000 Kellergassen in this part of Austria though many press houses have fallen into disrepair as the owners and their heirs no longer live in the area and no longer produce their own wine

The cellars are built into hillsides or dug deep underground to provide a constant temperature

They come in all shapes and sizes

Some are architecturally rather grand

After working in the fields, the owners would come to their press houses for lunch and a glass or two

Typically, from the entrance, there are steps down and the cellar is under the hillside

These stones cover ventilation shafts for the cellar beneath

Whoever has the key to the entrance is the rightful owner - the key was often passed on from a death bed

The Kellergasse in Kellerndorf blended right into the countryside

The grapes grow immediately behind the press houses

We often ask "who drinks all this wine?"

Kellerndorf is just a short way from the Czech border

37% of the wine produced here is Grüner Veltliner, the speciality DAC wine from the region

Hadres has 440 homes and a street of 420 press houses

Poysdorf is one of the main centres of wine production in the area

Trees grow from the cellars bathing the lane in cool and deep shade

In the Poysdorf Wine Museum a huge range of locally produced wine is displayed and is for sale

A short way east of Poysdorf is the border with Slovakia and from here, south to the Danube is a highly productive agricultural area, the Marchfeld.

Pumpkin, thistles, corn, sunflowers, cereals, carrots and soybeans plus a lot of sugar beet. Why a field of thistles, we can't imagine

South of the Danube, bordering Hungary, is the Burgenland an Austrian province renowned for its rich red wines grown in the south. This time we decided to save the reds for another trip.

Around the Neusiedlersee it is flat and windy

As well as sunflowers stretching as far as the eye can see, the wind generators fill the horizon

Storks are welcome summer visitors

Burg Forchtenstein is the family seat of the Esterhazy family

The castle looks out across the vineyards around the Neusiedlersee to Hungary

We travelled over the "land of 1000 hills" the Bucklige Welt southwards to Steiermark

This part of Steiermark is known for its apples where the orchards are protected from violent hailstorms with netting

But the far south of the province is known for another DAC wine, Schilcher

Close to the Slovenian border, Schilcherland has steep hillsides...

...and well-groomed vineyards

Schilcher is a light Rosé from Blaue Wildbacher grapes

DAC Schilcher from Klug in Stainz and Sonnenhügel's Grüner Veltliner from Retz

Our route - a total of 880km

Weinviertel sunset

Created By

Laurence Warren

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Credits:

Laurence Warren