Our own visit
Autumn in Spitz: a little break on the Tausendeimerberg
An outing with Sabine among golden vineyards, with views of the Danube and a wine break at the fridge in a small stone hut.
Knowledge
Terms, regions and grapes that help while tasting.
These are our explanatory notes on Wachau wine, its grape varieties and the neighbouring regions. Not an encyclopaedia talking down to you, but quiet orientation for what the wine and winery portraits will go into later.
Just need to look up one term? That is what the glossary is for.
Read the article: Autumn in Spitz: a little break on the Tausendeimerberg
Guide
Keeping opened wine bottles: what really works?
How long opened wine keeps, why the fridge is the most important helper even for red wine, and what vacuum pumps, inert gas and sparkling stoppers actually do.
Guide
Taking wine on a picnic: chilling, carrying and serving
How to keep wine cool on the go, which glasses make sense outdoors, where broken glass belongs, and what applies in Austria to drinking outdoors and driving.
Guide
Which wine glasses do I need for white wine?
What glass shape demonstrably changes, whether Grüner Veltliner and Riesling need their own glasses, and what matters in terms of material, size and the dishwasher.
Wine with food
Wine with Martinmas goose: white from the Wachau or red?
Regional recommendations say both white and red wine work with Martinmas goose. Our suggestion when buying in the Wachau: ask about Grüner Veltliner or Riesling. The side dishes, the preparation and the individual wine make the difference.
Wine with food
Wine with mushroom risotto: which Wachau style fits?
A medium-bodied Grüner Veltliner is a useful starting point. Mature Riesling or Neuburger are other possibilities. The way the risotto is prepared and the character of the individual wine matter most.
Wachau terms
Steinfeder, Federspiel and Smaragd, simply explained
Three words appear on a great many Wachau labels. They do not tell you whether a wine is better or worse, but which way its style, its weight and the right moment to drink it are heading.
Grape variety
Grüner Veltliner in the Wachau
In the Wachau, Grüner Veltliner can come across as light, peppery, juicy or very serious. It comes down to site, soil, ripeness and the question of how much weight a wine should carry at all.
Grape variety
Riesling from the Wachau
In the Wachau, Riesling often shows the cool, stony, precise side of the region. It can open quietly and then echo for a very long time.
Regions
Wachau, Kremstal, Kamptal and Traisental compared
Four wine regions lie close together and still tell different stories. Thinking of them side by side makes a lot of the wines from around here easier to understand.
Beyond the leading varieties
Neuburger, Muskateller and Weißburgunder around the Wachau
Grüner Veltliner and Riesling shape the picture. Alongside them are grapes that speak more quietly and can still say a great deal about the region and the people working in it.
Heuriger culture
What “ausg’steckt” means
A bunch of pine branches above the door means: open. Once you understand how a Heuriger works, the famously erratic opening hours start to make sense.
Origin
The villages of the Wachau and why they taste different
Spitz, Weißenkirchen, Dürnstein, Loiben and Mautern lie a few kilometres apart. In the glass they are often worlds apart, and there are reasons for that.
Origin system
Gebietswein, Ortswein, Riedenwein: the Wachau DAC explained
Steinfeder, Federspiel and Smaragd answer a question about ripeness and style. Gebietswein, Ortswein and Riedenwein answer a different one: how tightly a wine's origin can be pinned down.
For enjoying it
Serving temperature, glass and timing for Wachau wine
A good Grüner Veltliner or Riesling can disappoint just as easily lukewarm on a warm evening as ice-cold straight from the fridge. A few simple guidelines help more than any strict protocol.
History
Why wine grows in the Wachau: a short history
Monasteries, stone terraces, a power plant that never happened and a World Heritage listing: how a narrow stretch of the Danube became one of Europe's best-known wine landscapes, and why climate and soil play along.
History
Kremstal: how Krems became a wine town
Toll station, monastic harvest courts, one of the oldest winegrowers' guilds and the invention of high-trained vines: why wine has been grown and traded around Krems for over a thousand years.
History
Kamptal: winegrowing between the Heiligenstein and Langenlois
A wine tithe from the 11th century, Cistercian monks on the Heiligenstein and a sandstone up to 320 million years old: how the Kamptal became one of Austria's most successful wine regions.
History
Traisental: a young wine region with an ancient past
Bronze Age grape seeds, a Roman fort, an abbey that fled the floods, and gravel from the Limestone Alps: why the Traisental has an ancient history of vines, even though it has only existed as a wine region since 1995.