Mittelburgenland is a region in Austria. Mittelburgenland forms the central part of the Burgenland, close to Austria’s border with Hungary. The Landseer Mountains form the western boundary of the Burgenland region which opens to the east versus the Hungarian Lowlands.

Vineyard area: 2,104 hectares.

Terroir: The Mittelburgenland region stretches from the southern foothills of the Ödenburg Mountains to the Günser Bergland.

Climate: The protection of three mountain ranges in the north, south and west along with the opening versus the Pannonian lowlands fully fosters the influence of the Pannonian climate. At least 300 sunshine hours and as little as 600mm annual rainfall guarantee ideal climatic conditions for the Blaufränkisch.

Geology: From a geological point of view the Mittel Burgenland equates to the so called Oberpullendorfer Baisin with its tegel, clay, sand and gravel soils interspersed with old coral banks. Due to their very good water absorption capacity in combination with the  temperature-regulating influences of the close Lake Neusiedl these soils proved ideal for Blaufränkisch.

Burgenland was formed out of the Styrian and Pannonian Basins, as well as from the Eastern Alpine unit and the Penninicum. The Eastern Alpine unit consists of several strata of rock, where the lower level of the Penninic Nappes comes to light in tectonic windows. Deposits from the Quaternary Period are particularly widespread in the north of the region.

With a proportion of more than 60%, the coarsely grained sandy gravels of varying carbon content from the courses of the primeval Danube are dominant, in particular the

Seewinkel gravels, which support about one third of all vineyards in the region. The Seewinkel gravels are covered only in places by fine sediments, while in the older terraces  a loamy, often limestone-poor covering stratum can be widely observed.

A solid third of the vineyard area is growing on the basin’s Neogene sedimentary deposits. These vary greatly in composition, both in particle size distribution as well as carbon content and solidification: the range extends from partly silty, sometimes almost pure and limestone-free clays in Mittelburgenland to solid Leitha limestone.

The proportion of vineyard parcels growing on hard rock is slight, but one finds here a rich lithic spectrum that includes dolomite and limestone plus limestony schists, argillaceous schists and mica schists, along with gneisses, amphibolites and serpentinites.

Red wines

Mittelburgenland DAC Blaufränkisch

Certified Biodynamic: Weninger.

Bibliography

Oxford Companion to Wine 4th edition ed. Jancis Robinson MW and Julia Harding MW (Oxford University Press, 2015).

Tom Stevenson, The Sotheby’s Wine Encyclopedia 5th Edition (Dorling Kindersley, 2011).