The Heurigen of Austria...

The “Heuriger” is a famous instiution the wine growing areas of Austria. A law - more than 250 years old allows Austrian producers of wine to sell their own wine and other products at their places with very low taxes. Heuriger is the name of the youngest wine. In September, soon after the first grapes are harvested, it is possible to enjoy the “Sturm”, the only partially fermented intermediate product that later becomes full wine. It is sweet and good but you could easily drink much more than you should. Most also sell food - simple meat and potatoes and other "stick to your ribs" German-type cuisine.




Here is the Heuriger we went to in Grinzing, Austria. Grinzing is on the far outskirts of Vienna, but it still only took about 40 minutes door-to-door from our hotel. A ride on the S-bahn and then a tram to Grinzing, and then a short walk.



Last Saturday evening in Vienna was gorgeous, and we ate and drank in the garden which is a standard feature of the Heurigen. There was a table of loud American tourists (or is that redundant?) but mostly it appeared to be Austrians.



There were two musicians - an accordian player and a violinist. Here an older gentleman patron wanted to sing a song that they were playing. His voice wasn't bad and you could tell that he was one of those guys who really loved life. He did a couple of songs before being distracted by a child at a table accross the way.