The Wine Attic

05/28/2026

Austria Wine Tour Recap: Day 5 / Wachau, Thermenregion & Back to Vienna


Day five was our final day together.

We checked out of LOISIUM and headed into the Wachau for Tegernseerhof in Unterloiben, just below Durnstein. The winery’s history goes back more than 1,000 years, and there is still a cannonball embedded in the outer wall from the Napoleonic fighting in the Wachau.

Our tasting was hosted by Lisa, who had worked harvests with the team. Everything is hand-harvested because the terraces do not allow for machines. After hearing about carrying grapes up and down those hillsides, the Wachau terraces looked a little different.

My personal favorite was the Dürnstein T26 Grüner Veltliner Federspiel. The single-parcel wines may be the more serious bottlings, but T26 is the one I kept coming back to: bright, mineral, energetic, approachable, and built for hours of enjoyment under almost any circumstances.

After lunch at Wachauer Stube and a guided walk through Dürnstein, we headed to Oberwaltersdorf for our final wine dinner at Weingut Hartl.

Heinrich and Marie-Sophie Hartl brought the whole trip home: Pinot Noir, St. Laurent, Rotgipfler, Zierfandler, cellar time, garden greens, family hospitality, and one last long table.

Heinrich was a gracious host, walking us through the cellar and sharing how he thinks about the wines, especially Pinot Noir. Marie-Sophie was equally central to the experience. Klaus introduced her as “a force,” and that is exactly how she came across: winemaker, host, marketer, mother, and someone who understands Austrian wine on a global level.

Together, Heinrich and Marie-Sophie felt like the point of the whole visit: serious wine, real hospitality, family life, and a clear vision for what the Thermenregion can be.

The Pinot Noir focus really came into view with Ried Graf Weingartl 1ÖTW: red berries, forest floor, cedar, spice, and a mineral-salty finish. It made Heinrich’s ambition to produce some of Austria’s best Pinot Noir feel very real.

That wraps the first Wine Attic Austrian wine tour - ending, fittingly, with one last rooftop night at MOOONS in Vienna. Servus!

05/28/2026

Austria Wine Tour Recap: Day 4 / Carnuntum & Burgenland


Day four was the monster day, so yes, this one gets the monster carousel.

We left Langenlois after breakfast and headed southeast to Carnuntum, the far eastern edge of Lower Austria, for a morning with the Netzl family in Göttlesbrunn. By this point, the bus had become its own little traveling clubhouse: naps, conversations, quiet windows, and that familiar road-life feeling somewhere between wine tour and the “Wanted Dead or Alive” video.

At Netzl, Christina greeted us with one of the most impressive 0.0 sparkling wines we have ever tasted — infused with tea for texture and complexity. From there came the cellar, the barrels, the wines, and Mama Christine Netzl’s famous Hungarian-style goulash.

This was goulash goulash - the stuff of my dreams…

The standout wine was Anna-Christina, a top red built from Zweigelt, Merlot, and Cabernet Sauvignon: dark fruit, ripe tannins, complexity, and polished Carnuntum confidence.

From there, we continued into Burgenland for Steindorfer in Apetlon, where Roland led the tasting while Ernst was there in support. We tasted reds, whites, sweet wines, Kardinalschnitte with Cuvée Klaus Beerenauslese, espresso with Maresi, and their “Golden Cut” Chardonnay that showed a very different side of the winery.

Then it was on to Hillinger in Jois, where Leo Hillinger himself came out to greet the group. We tasted deeply, had a proper jause, and even gave feedback on 2023 and 2024 Pinot Noir barrel samples.

The Hillinger standout was Hill 1: Merlot, Blaufränkisch, and Zweigelt with dark fruit, structure, length, and unmistakable Burgenland warmth.

After all that, we still had a three-course dinner back at LOISIUM. By then, I was too zazzed by the day to remember to take any dinner photos.

By the end of the night, we were full, tired, happy, and very aware that Austria was not letting us coast into the finish.

05/28/2026

Austria Wine Tour Recap: Day 3 / Feuersbrunn, Grafenegg, Krems & Kremstal florianbauer

Day three started in Feuersbrunn with a cooking class and luncheon at Toni Mörwald, with wines poured by Florian Bauer.

Our group split into teams for Frittatensuppe, Apfelstrudel, and schnitzel. I ended up on pancake duty, cooking and cutting the ribbons for the soup. Florian was on hand throughout the lunch, pouring his wines while we cooked and ate. He was also the first winemaker we hosted at The Wine Attic of Lorton shortly after opening in 2024, so having him there in Feuersbrunn felt full-circle.

His Riesling Feuersbrunn Wagram DAC was a standout: citrus, stone fruit, racy acidity, and that loess-soil texture that makes Wagram feel generous without getting heavy.

Our chef instructor Matthias had classic Skatalites playing in the kitchen, which naturally led to some deeper conversation about food and music. Also, Matthias and I took a photo mean-muggin’ like we were about to announce tour dates.

After lunch, we visited Schloss Grafenegg and walked through Krems before ending the day at Weingut Müller-Grossmann in Furth-Palt.

Marlies Hanke now runs the winery her mother Helma started in 1986, and the estate is moving toward organic farming. The tasting had a real-time shop connection: some of the wines we tasted were being loaded onto a container headed for the U.S. in the days after our visit.

The Riesling Furth stood out, and the “No Make Up” natural wines struck a real chord with the group.

Then came dinner in a converted garage at their home: food, wine, conversation, and warm family hospitality all around us.

You may be noticing a theme in these travels: family wineries, generational stories, down-to-earth people, and hospitality that feels completely real. That is exactly why we wanted to bring our group here.

05/28/2026

Austria Wine Tour Recap: Steininger, Steinhaus & LOISIUM WeinWelt / Langenlois

Day two was our “relax day,” at least by wine-tour standards.

We started with Brigitta Steininger for a morning tasting at Weingut Steininger, then headed up to the Steinhaus vineyard for a picnic lunch among the vines. The skies looked dramatic, thunder rolled nearby, but the rain held off. Some rode back down. Others walked the full vineyard trail back toward LOISIUM.

A standout in the tasting was Grüner Veltliner Ried Lamm 1ÖTW: powerful, mineral, herbal, full, long, and just plain delicious. We also tasted barrel samples of Kraftvoll, Steininger’s port-style fortified wine project — a fascinating side road into Austrian white grapes treated in a powerful, oxidative, sweet style.

Later came the LOISIUM WeinWelt tour: old cellar tunnels, modern architecture, and a reminder that wine in Langenlois is built into the place itself.

05/26/2026

Austria Wine Tour Recap: Steininger Sekt Dinner / Langenlois


After our first winery lunch in Wagram, we continued to Langenlois, checked into LOISIUM, and gathered that evening with Weingut Steininger.

Our first night in wine country was all about Sekt with Eva Steininger.

This was not sparkling wine as a toast. This was sparkling wine as a full meal.

Eva hosted us through a multi-course dinner paired entirely with Steininger Sekt: Cabernet Sauvignon Rosé Sekt as an aperitif, Riesling Sekt Reserve with smoked trout, Grüner Veltliner Sekt Reserve with asparagus cream soup, Brut Sekt Reserve with roast beef and dumplings, and Zweigelt Sekt with dessert.

For the finale, Peter Steininger sabered a bottle of Zweigelt Sekt, which was poured over sorbet. And after the plates were cleared, we got one more treat: Ried Heiligenstein Große Reserve Riesling Sekt, from one of Austria’s great Riesling vineyards. Mineral, dense, elegant, and zero-dosage precise — the kind of bottle that makes “Austrian sparkling wine” feel much too small.

By the end of the night, we were no longer just travelers following an itinerary. We were a fully formed group experiencing everything together.

05/26/2026

Austria Wine Tour Recap: Paul Direder / Wagrampaul_d

Our first stop after leaving Vienna was Paul Direder in the Wagram — lunch at the source, family history, and a proper Spargel season welcome.

The Direder farm dates back to 1849, and Paul took over young, carrying the family work forward while moving the winery toward organic certification. Wagram’s loess soils and old Danube sediments give the wines their generous, spicy, textured character.

Lunch brought cream of asparagus soup, pork medallions with white asparagus and hollandaise, and chocolate mousse with strawberries and black pepper. One standout was Paul D Weißburgunder Wagram DAC — Pinot Blanc by another name — crisp, elegant, powerful, and lifted with pear and exotic fruit.

Also, Paul grows sugar beets used in another slightly famous Austrian product: Red Bull.

Not a bad way to start.

05/26/2026

05/01/2026

Svibanj je stigao, a vina našeg vinskog kluba ovog mjeseca dolaze iz Dalmacije. 🍷

May has arrived, and this month’s wine club wines come from Dalmatia 🇭🇷

Taste & Trade pickup events this weekend:
Lorton — tonight (5/1), 5:30–7:30
Clifton — tomorrow (5/2), 4–7

Come hang, taste through the lineup, and finally learn what pomalo really means.

04/03/2026

April Wine Club is here…and we’re going to Canada 🇨🇦

Somewhere between the Roughriders and the Ti-Cats… we landed in Niagara-on-the-Lake.

This month we’re featuring Pillitteri Estates Winery from Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario—producers of fantastic cool-climate wines (and yes… Icewine too).

Wine Club Taste & Trade this weekend:
🗓️ Friday 4/3 @ Lorton 5:30–7:30
🗓️ Saturday 4/4 @ Clifton 4–7

04/01/2026

April Wine Club is here…and we’re going to Canada 🇨🇦

This month we’re featuring from Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario—producers of fantastic cool-climate wines (and yes… Icewine too).

Wine Club Taste & Trade this weekend:
🗓️ Friday 4/3 @ Lorton 5:30–7:30
🗓️ Saturday 4/4 @ Clifton 4–7

Also: we’ll be pouring Icewine at those events…because of course we will.