Viennese Waltz: Wines from Greater Vienna Region
[Image above from the 1955 film SISSI with Romy Schneider about Empress Elizabeth]
Fresh off my trip to Austria and Vie Vinum in Vienna, I'm pleased to share our wines from the Greater Vienna Region. From within Austria's capital along the northern and southwestern borders we find vineyards up in the hills. Vines have traditionally been planted there since 1132 but some even as early as Celtic and Roman times. Even in the late Middle Ages, vines were still being grown inside the city walls in what is now Vienna's first district. Nowadays, the vineyards are all on the outskirts. We will be visiting two wineries , one in the north and one in the south: Ambrositch and Zahel respectively. But first, there is no winery without it's heuriger...
[Vineyards high up above the city within Vienna proper.]
(Photo: Beethovenhaus Heurige in Nussberg) 
Our first Viennese vintner is akin to a gypsy brewer: Jutta Ambrositch. Born in the mountainous south, her family moved to Eisenberg in southern Burgenland where they tended a small plot of vineyards while managing a forest. She left for Vienna to study graphic design, found a job in the field but would spend the summers back home tending the vineyard. After staging with Nittnaus in nearby Burgenland, she began hunting for vineyards in Vienna proper. As she puts it in an interview with wine writer Valeri Kathawala: “You get the best of country and city. You can experience nature and be part of it, but also catch a great film at night.”
In the 16th century, the city’s wine tavern culture sprang to life. The Heurigen (wine taverns) scene was made possible through an imperial edict, which allowed growers to serve food with their wine. In the northern hills of Vienna, this wine tavern, or Heuriger belonging to winery Mayer am Pfarrplatz, shares some entertaining history with Beethoven. The composer came here for a summer of rest & rejuvenation in 1817 and spent hours writing parts of his 9th Symphony Eroica in his quarters -- which remain unchanged to this day, and can be entered from the tree-shaded summer garden terrace. As you find his favorite spot in the garden, authentic Viennese folk music is performed and a sumptuous buffet of homemade specialties is laid out along with carafes of crisp and wonderfully aromatic Gemischter Satz. If you're lucky enough to be there during asparagus season as I was, it pairs perfectly with Asparagus Cordon Bleu. Schnitzel, Spargl and Satz!!!
Our first Viennese vintner is akin to a gypsy brewer: Jutta Ambrositch. Born in the mountainous south, her family moved to Eisenberg in southern Burgenland where they tended a small plot of vineyards while managing a forest. She left for Vienna to study graphic design, found a job in the field but would spend the summers back home tending the vineyard. After staging with Nittnaus in nearby Burgenland, she began hunting for vineyards in Vienna proper. As she puts it in an interview with wine writer Valeri Kathawala: “You get the best of country and city. You can experience nature and be part of it, but also catch a great film at night.”Her timing couldn’t have been better: the early 2000s were the cusp of Vienna’s wine renaissance and she was able to snap up plots that might now be the object of serious competition. She convinced ageing growers to part with their best old-vine parcels, winning them over with the sincerity of her commitment. As a newcomer to the scene, she had to be strategic. “[My] winemaking is pure networking. I own no cellar, no press, no pumps,” she tells me. “To buy my own equipment of the quality I would want would be so expensive.” So, she shares—with some of Austria’s most talented winemakers: Rainer Christ, whose family has been making wine in Vienna for 400 years, and third-generation winemaker Peter Bernreiter look after her wines in their cellars. “We grow and harvest the grapes, which are delivered to their cellars, pressed, and pumped into tanks. The wines ferment and are bottled there. But I always determine how the wine is made" She now cultivates 4 hectares in some of Vienna's best and oldest sites. Her oldest vines (“I love old vineyards”) date to 1952, and most are planted to Vienna’s vinous calling card: Gemischter Satz, the wine that is also truest to her heart. For the latter, we are pleased to offer her "Kosmopolit" from both sides of the Danube and her single vineyard Riesling "Utopie".
(Photo: Zahel & kinder in vineyard)
Our next Viennese winemaker is 4th generation Alex Zahel based in Maurer in the southwestern hills of the capital. Alex took over from his uncle Richard who was basically responsible for putting Wiener Gemischter Satz on the map in 1989 as the first to write it on a label. In 2013, it became an official DAC. To be Wiener Gemischter Satz, a wine must have at least three and no more than 20 grape varieties in the field blend. The first grape must constitute no more than 50 percent of the blend, and the third grape must constitute at least 10 percent. These are meant to be bright, lively white wines aged in stainless steel; none can be more than 12.5 percent alcohol, and must not have a “strongly recognizable expression” of oak.
We are thrilled to offer his latest creation; a Gemischter Satz in Pet Nat form! Alex is also responsible for getting Zahel Demeter certified; they are Vienna's first and only biodynamic winery!
