The Burgenland Wine Country

Burgenland runs along Austria's eastern edge, flat, warm and among the sunniest parts of the country, which is why most of its serious red wine comes from here. Blaufraenkisch is the grape that defines it, dark and firm, grown on the Leithaberg slopes and in the Mittelburgenland further south, with Zweigelt and St Laurent alongside. In the north the shallow water of the Neusiedler See holds autumn mist over the vineyards, and that mist brings the noble rot behind the sweet wines of Rust and the Seewinkel villages. Cellar lanes, tasting rooms and a flat network of cycle paths connect the villages, and Rust is known for the storks that nest on its chimneys.

Highlights

• Blaufraenkisch - the regional red, firmest from the Mittelburgenland and the Leithaberg slopes.
• Ausbruch - the sweet botrytis wine of Rust, pressed from shrivelled grapes.
• The cellar lanes - rows of small cellars on village edges, opened for tasting on set days.
• The storks of Rust - nests on the chimneys of the old town from spring into late summer.

When to go

May to October, with the harvest and the autumn mist in September and October the best of it. Many cellars open only at weekends or by arrangement, so plan rather than drive around hoping. Summer here is genuinely hot and there is no shade on the plain, which suits cycling between villages early in the day rather than at midday.

Before you go

Public transport is thin and the region assumes a car, which makes tasting awkward; use the cycle network or arrange a driver. Village cellars keep short, irregular hours and often no English. The landscape is flat and repetitive, and the lake is walled in by reeds with few open views of water. Autumn weekends fill up with visitors from Vienna.

Nearby

The lake, Eisenstadt and the reed belt of the Seewinkel are all within half an hour.