Organizer’s note: The Austrian Wine Adventure Tour is a series of articles, videos, and webinars about adventures in Austrian wine country. Julia Sevenich gives an insider’s view of the best wine places to go, the juiciest insider secrets, and just who is shakin’ and makin’ the dynamic Austrian wine scene.
Between now and the EWBC 2010, 9 articles and 7 videos are scheduled to appear. The Austrian Wine Adventure Tour will be featured exclusively on Haidu.net. During the EWBC you will be able to locate wine bars and wine dining places recommended by Julia on the Haidu iphone app as well as many of the wineries that will be presenting their wines at the conference and on the conference trips.
First up…Weinvertel DAC!
“There is a rather endearing curse in the German language. When you are frustrated with someone and want to send them to the end of the world, you tell them to go ‘where the pepper grows’,” laughs Marion Ebner-Ebenauer. “I used to think that meant somewhere far away and isolated like Africa, Madagascar, or the most rural parts of the Weinviertel. But now with the international success of our peppery Grüner Veltliner under the geographic label of origin ‘Weinviertel DAC’, the place where ‘the pepper grows’ has gained a pleasant second meaning.”
Marion is giving us a tour of the Weinviertel in her vintage VW beetle and I am impressed that this old red convertible successfully climbs each vineyard slope without a sputter! We are just past the borders of Vienna touring vineyards of Langenzersdorf, Bisamberg und Hagenbrunn. We refresh ourselves along the way with typical heuriger fare of various salads and bread with different delicious spreads as well as the region’s famous Marchfeld asparagus. The Weinviertel is the bread basket of Austria. Most of the country’s grains are grown here and it is also a primary source of fresh vegetables for the nation’s capitol city. Austria’s heuriger culture was born when a sanction passed by Emperor Franz-Josef II in 1784 allowed farmers to sell their produce and products directly to consumers and this culture of rustic wine taverns continues to thrive.
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