They may not be the biggest consumers of wine in the world, but when it comes to sheer enthusiasm, it’s hard to beat the Austrians, especially in and around the capital, Vienna. I recently went to its biennial wine fair, Vievinum, which was so packed you could barely move, and if the locals weren’t drinking there, they were patronising the wine bars, or heurigers, that dot the hills around the city. At one I visited, Weingut Mayer am Pfarrplatz, which is housed in Beethoven’s former home, there was a large group dressed like extras from Bridgerton, which added considerably to the jolliness of the experience.
There are more than 600 producers in the Vienna (or Wien) wine region, most of whom make a wine called gemischter satz, a so-called “field blend” of vines that are planted randomly through the vineyards, rather than in blocks of a single variety, as is more common nowadays. Christoph Bauer’s Gemischter Schatz (schatz means treasure) in my pick today, for example, is based on grüner veltliner, neuburger, sauvignon blanc, traminer and welschriesling, and such wines tend to be fruity, light in alcohol and often served with water as a spritz.
