Vienna is both a capital city and a federal region. It is the capital city of Austria where locally Vienna is called Wien. It is the largest and most populous city within the Austrian federation. Vienna is also one of the nine states within the Austrian federation, having its own assembly. It lies in the country’s east on the Danube River in rural surroundings. Its artistic and intellectual legacy was shaped by residents including Mozart, Beethoven and Sigmund Freud. The city is also known for its Imperial palaces, including Schönbrunn, the Habsburgs’ summer residence. In the Museums Quartier district, historic and contemporary buildings display works by Egon Schiele, Gustav Klimt and other artists.

Wine events: Vie Vinum.

Wine drinking: See Buschenschank and Heuriger for traditional ways of consuming the local wines.

Organic & Biodynamic wine production data: See here.

Vineyard area: 637 hectares (1,573 acres).

Vineyards: Vienna is the only global national capital with an economically significant wine industry within its regional boundaries, not all of Vienna being exactly urban (Giles MacDonogh: 1997, inside cover & p.11). Most of Vienna’s vineyards are on ‘semi-rural hills to the west’ (Giles MacDonogh: 1992, p.39).  During the Third Reich the administrative entity of Vienna region was larger, taking in the whole of the Südbahn to the south in what is now called the Thermenregion, with Gumpoldskirchen and Bad Vöslau within the city’s aegis,’ (Giles MacDonogh: 1997, p.11). 

Until the late Middle Ages, vineyards flourished within the inner city walls of Vienna, in today’s prestigious First District, yet nowadays, vines are cultivated in the outer districts and the outskirts of Vienna. Wine producers from the northern wine-growing villages of Strebersdorf, Stammersdorf and Jedlersdorf also have vineyards planted on the Bisamberg, north of the Danube, with its favourable conditions for the Pinot varieties. In the west of the City, from Ottakring, Hernals and moving northwest towards Pötzleinsdorf and the 19th District, the varied carbonate-rich soils offer ideal conditions for Riesling, Chardonnay and Weißburgunder (Pinot Blanc), particularly around Heiligenstadt, Nussdorf, Grinzing, Sievering and Neustift am Walde. In the southern parts of Vienna, calcareous, brown and black earth soils around Mauer, Rodaun and Oberlaa favour the production of more full-bodied white and red wines.

Terroir: ‘A diverse range of vineyards within a limited area would be the first way to describe the Vienna wine region,’ says Fritz Wieninger of Weingut Wieninger.

Soils: Shale, gravel, clay and limestone predominate the loam soils (Giles MacDonogh: 1997, inside cover).

Vineyard sites: Bisamberg. | Georgenberg. | Kahlenberg. | Nussberg.

Towns: Stammersdorf.

Main grape varieties: Grüner Veltliner, Riesling, Chardonnay, and Pinot Blanc for whites, and Pinot Noir and Zweigelt for reds.

Wines

Wiener Gemischter Satz DAC: Wiener Gemischter Satz or ‘Viennese Field Blend’ became a DAC (Districtus Austria Controllatus) in 2013. The wine is made from vineyards planted with a mix of different varieties which are also harvested together in one picking and then made into wine. The most renowned site for this style is the Nussberg.

Wineries

Certified Biodynamic: Wieninger. 

Bibliography

Giles MacDonogh, The Wine and Food of Austria (Mitchell Beazley, 1992), p.35.

Giles MacDonogh, Austria, New Wines from the Old World (Osterreichischer Agrarverlag, 1997).