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Can anyone recommend a good austrian wine village, near Salzburg or Vienna that is worthy of a day trip and subsequent purchase to bring home? Which wine from this region is best?

Although I can't say I have ever been to an Austrian "wine village", I know something of Austrian wines - - much of which came from a great 2 hour visit into a great wine bar/shop in Salzburg called Alpinum. I posted this here about a year ago: ************ Author: Rex ([email protected]) Date: 04/13/2001, 03:37 pm Message: In Austria, I am just starting to learn about a rich spectrum of reds that vary considerably from Tirol to the further eastern regions of the country. Tyrolean wines will include some Italian reds from the Trentino since "Sudtirol" refers to a region that is half in Austria, half in Italy. Further to the east, Blaufrankisch and Zweigelt are deep dark reds that ressemble Bordeaux. If you are in salzburg, I strongly recommend a visit to Alpinum, a winestore/open bar where they will happily serve you from a half-dozen open bottles, and once you buy one or two, they will open some bottles for you to taste, but charge you by the glass. Very nice. ************ excerpted from http://www.fodors.com/forums/pgMessages.jsp?fid=2&tid=1288217 As for regions, I believe that the Steiermark (Styria) is the origin of the full-bodies reds I liked best. Best wishes, Rex

Whoops - - I meant to include this map of Austrian wine regions also: http://www.austrian.wine.co.at/ewein/fr_regions.html

Here's a very good resource for wineries in Austria: http://www.bboxbbs.ch/home/tbm/wine/wine-at.htm

There are no vineyards within close proximity to Salzburg. There are over 1700 acres of vineyards within Vienna's city limits! The one time villages of Grinzing, Sievering, Nussdorf, Neustift and Heiligenstadt are now all incorporated within the city as are there vineyards. The bulk of Viennese wine is white, with the best known being Gruner Veitliner, Welschriesling and Grinzing's Gumpoldskirchen. Grinzing is famous for its heuriger, a word with two meanings: it defines the new wine available in the spring of the year; it also defines the inns in which the new wine is sold and Grinzing has one after another as you walk its main street. You can take the U-4 line of the U-bahn system to the Heiligenstadt station and pick up the bus numbered 38A. It passes through Heiligenstadt on its way to Grinzing. Bad Voslau, a town about 30kms south of Vienna is a large producer of red wines. There is a Viennese wine shop, Vinothek St. Stephan, on Stephansplatz, quite near the cathedral. d.

A winery near Vienna worth visiting is Johanneshof Reinisch. It is close to the town of Baden, about 40 minutes from Vienna. The winery's web site (in English) is www.j-r.at/frame_set_e.htm Their 1998 reserve pinot noir is excellent. The winery's web site gives travel directions and will send you a price list for all its available wines. If you want to taste the wine before you go, it's carried at Meinl, the upscale grocery store at the end of the Graben. It's also the house pinot noir at Restaurant zum Weissen Rauchfangkehrer (the white chimney sweep) on 4 Weihburggasse, just off the Karntnerstrasse, one of my all time favorite restaurants (www.weisser-rauchfangkehrer.at).

A really charming village in the heart of the Wachau valley wine country is Wiessenkirchen (sp?). The Wachau valley is about an hour west of Vienna. We stayed at a b&b winery (there are many in this area), biked along the Danube, and had a wondeful time. We sampled several whites, a few reds, and also 'sturm' which is almost like a grape cider. There are several winery oriented villages in this area, all very scenic. Request a brochure on the Wachau valley area from the Austrian Tourist office in New York. Austria publishes some very useful and colorful free booklets.