Loisium,in Langenlois, is not a winery - rather a very good wine history exhibition mostly in old cellars.

They do have an excelent vinothek selling wine of good vintners from nearby areas including Steininger among others that I believe had much to do with establishiing the Loisium.

Neumeister is a winery in south Steiermark. They have several Sauvignon Blancs - aged in wood casks.
The best , I believe is sold out and was quite expensive . Some lesser - for example Klausen , a little less alcohol is good.
But in this area , I like the wine of Weingut Winkler - Hermaden at Kapfenstein - an excelent Sauvignon Blanc 2006 also from the cask , dry


www.winkler-hermaden.at

grr: thanks for the neumeister link, now I realize that oaked S.blanc is not so uncommon in Styria. We'll have a taste in some winebar in Vienna to see if we like it first. It's just something that peaked my wife's interest, but not necessarily mine. I just want to confirm that there's none made in the Danube valley.

molker: Really appreciate your restaurant details which will be very helpful when we're there. I guess it will just depend on where we'll be at lunch time. Yes we've had some Brundlmeyer & Goebelsburg but they were probably not their flagship wines. I'm sure they're solid good, but I didn't find the wines we had to be outstanding. We do however find Hiedler wines to be beautiful for their prices. I also like the fact that it's a family run winery (typical in Austria I suppose)

Unfortunately your answers generate a few more questions here. It seems that we'll need a car if we want to visit Schloss Goebelsburg and Langenlois, or not? We're trying not to drive, but Langenlois sounds like worth the effort. Your comment about interesting buildings built in the 1500's raised my interest in Langenlois. I originally thought it would just be another wine village like Gols.

Would you say we can visit & taste without appointments? I can't commit to appointments because my wife also wants to spend time with her cousin & family in Vienna, so our schedule is up on the air. Last year the winemakers were happy to entertain my friends & myself just because we came all the way from California and we acted like we knew some things about their wine. I ended up carrying 2 cases of wines to the states with me.

Hopefully some answers

Sauvigon Blanc - yes you can find it along the Danube- in the Wachau

F X Pichler in Dürnstein / Oberloiben- one of the premier wineries of Austria

www.fx-pichler.at

a good dry Smaragd

Weissenkirchen
at Weingut Schmelz- also a highly rated

a Sauvignon Blanc Federspiel

also in Langenlois

Weingut Steininger - their wine I drink regularly

they have a Savignon Blanc Sekt ( Sparkling wine ) dry and very good in my opinion-

they have good Riesling too.

www.weingut Steininger.at

Hiedler also with a S /B

www.hiedler.at

and also Ehn directly in the center of langenlois

www.ehnwein.at


thus you can find this wine.

langenlois - always a favorite of mine.
Easy to test there - they have a nince Vinothek in the town center - the UrsinHaus . Many of the area wineries place their wines there for a test and of course purchase.

www.ursinhaus.at


info on Langenlois

www.langenlois.at

Good places to eat also -
The Langenloiserhof on the town square - a 15- 16th century house - fine courtyard for dining outdoors.

Open Wednesday - Sunday - was there 2 weeks ago- with friends that live in the town- they eat there regularly and really enjoy it.

As most all wineries are family owned - with the family really doing the daily duties of wine culture - it is harder to visit without appointments - but some will have hours for purchases and testing-
best to check their websites as days, times vary greatly-
this is the plus and reason for the vinothek.

Much better to visit Langenlois and /or Gobelsburg with a car - but idf you do not mind some longer walks - a visit by train is possible - Vienna - to the town of Hadersdorf - then to a smaller - normally 1 car regional train along the Kamp valley stops Langenlois for sure - perhaps Gobelsburg

check this site for schedules

www.oebb.at


If you ever visit in May - the first Saturday and Sunday - a fine wine weekend

The Tour De Vin- of Kamptal- Kremstal
15-20 top wineries combine to present testing - tours of cellars etc.

total cost per person- un limited wine testing - as much as you wish - some just place bottles in various places and your pour your wish- cost for 2 days - 15 euro

We usually have a group making this a fun and most inexpensive weekend-

Thanks for the great links. It seems that Steininger makes their SB into a sekt which we don't care for,but it looks that Hiedler SB Reserve must have some light oak (weiche vanille),now that's something I can readily buy in our area.

The Langenlois website indicates that we can take the Franz Joseph Bahn from Vienna into Langenlois directly, so perhaps we can still do it by train and then bike along their bikepath to 3 other towns, though I don't know if we can bike to Krems from there. The pictures look very idyllic and attractive.

The langenlois site advises as I did above that you can reach langenlois by train- but only by making a transfer in hadersdorf- no big thing as you go usually from track 3 to track 2 - walk down the steps to the crossing and then back up- these trains are co ordinated for an easy transfer .

But the Bahnhof in Langenlois is a fair walk from the twon center and your interests.

The Ursin haus has bikes to rent.

krems is possible by bike but needs some travel on highways - also a big climb to get back to Langenlois - I would not advise it.
As mentioned before langenlois is not on the danube - but in the hills north-
enough to do in Langenlois -

Thanks for all your help! I've printed the train/bus schedule between Krems & Langenlois so we can visit both in one day.

One last question: Is it OK to visit Krems & Langenlois on a Sunday? Would shops/wineries be closed on Sundays?

Sunday not the best day to visit - shops are closed - most restaurnats open-
most wineries do not have hours

check individual websites of the wineries-
that one of the purposes of the Vinothek to allow the hard working owner some free time and still permit visitors an opportunity to test and purchase wine.
example - in Langenlois the Ursin Haus Vinothek is open on sunday.

see website for hours.

Thanks, I'm glad I asked the question. That's the cultural difference, in Napa, California the wineries are open on weekends including Sundays.

Thanks betty, molker & grr for helping me plan my trip. We made it to Krems after much confusion & long delay due to ersatz verkehr with the train & underground. We should have just rented a car. We did enjoy Krems very much but by the time we were ready to go to Durnstein it started to rain!
Nevertheless we had a really great time in Vienna in the 5 days we stayed there that we barely need to leave town. We've been to Vienna several times but always with our kids so this time Vienna felt like a whole different city.