Langenlois

Langenlois has more vineyard than any other Austrian wine town, some two thousand hectares in the Kamptal on loess and primary rock terraces, with Grüner Veltliner and Riesling the leading grapes and the Heiligenstein and Käferberg among the best known single vineyards in the country. What has been built on that is the Loisium, opened in 2003: an aluminium-clad cube tilted into the slope by the American architect Steven Holl, sitting above a system of nine-hundred-year-old cellars that run under the town, with a route through the tunnels and an exhibition on wine. A hotel by the same architect was added. The town itself has a market square, a wine school that trains much of the Austrian trade, and cellar lanes on the slopes above.

What you actually see

• Austria's largest wine town - some two thousand hectares of Kamptal vineyard.
• Steven Holl's Loisium - the tilted aluminium cube set into the slope.
• Nine-hundred-year-old cellars - the tunnel system under the town, walked on the route.
• Named single vineyards - Heiligenstein and Käferberg on the slopes above.

When to go

April to October; autumn for the harvest. A day.

Honest expectations

The Loisium charges and is as much a designed experience as a museum. Cellars are cold. Wine estates need appointments for tastings; not all take walk-ins.

Nearby

Krems and the Wachau are south; Zwettl and the Waldviertel are north-west.