Tag Archives: Austria

Wine Notes: Austria’s Carnuntum

 

What I Learned:

Carnuntum’s wine district, with its center around Hoeflein and Goettlesbrunn, is one of eight districts in the Niederoesterreich (Lower Austria) Wine Region, most of which lie along, or at least relatively close to the Danube. It is a district with a proud vine cultivation history pre-dating even the Romans, extending as far back in time as the Celts.

Carnuntum has three principle growing areas, the Leithagebirge, the Hainburger Berge and the Arbesthaler Huegelland. Soils throughout are mostly sandy and loamy. Small differences in the soil though make for different challenges and ultimately different wines. The area’s named vineyards, or Riede, are well-known by local vintners.

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Weinwandern in Carnuntum: Trail in a Nutshell

 

Trail Name: Weinwandern in Carnuntum: Hoeflein Variante

Trail Type: An easy, family-friendly/carriage-friendly, short distance circuit, with well-maintained trail surfaces that are tarmacked or otherwise hardpacked, and with specific trail markings that are mostly easy to follow and are fairly well-updated.

Length: total: 9.7 kilometers/ 6 miles

Convenient to: Vienna, Austria

Marking: Rectangles with a horizontal white bar across the middle, flanked by similar red bars above and below it; bearing the words: Weinwandern in Carnuntum

Weinwandern in Carnuntum Signage
Weinwandern in Carnuntum Signage

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The Wachau: Wine Experiences along Austria’s Danube

The Danube River brings to mind not only the Blue Danube Waltz, that compositional blend of romantic, gently swirling, rhythmic phrases – punctuated by the occasional dramatic phrase – it is also evocative of Lower Austria and Vienna, a graceful and refined area that includes great art in all forms, and wine, of course. Since wine country hiking here combines all these elements, it fell on the must-do list.

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Wine Notes: Austria’s Wachau Wine Region

What I Learned:

Austria has 20 wine regions, one of which is the Wachau, situated along the banks of the Danube, upriver from Vienna.

Wine production in the Wachau region dates to at least the 1130s.

The geography helps to make grape-growing possible. The ancient Danube River helped created the loess soils, and now serves to moderate temperatures; the bowls formed by the steep hill slopes (called Ried), shelter vines from winds and capture the sun’s heat.

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