It’s six o’clock on a Friday, and the Weingut Alphart Heuriger in Traiskirchen, a town that’s 20 km south of Vienna, in the heart of the Thermenregion, starts filling up. People of all ages come in from the surrounding area to enjoy their evening in this well-known restaurant that opens only six months per year – that is to say, 17 days per month, as written on a precise schedule that’s sent to clients in Vienna and across the area.
People come for the refined food, the high- quality wines and the ‘Stimmung’, or atmosphere, that’s the third leg of this prosperous business of Karl Alphart, who runs the place with his wife Elisabeth and his son Florian. They make 80% of their income thanks to ex-cellar sales on these occasions; their brand new cellar sits next to the Heuriger. As of this year, there’s also a modern shop on the other side of the very charming courtyard that boasts at least 50 wooden tables. For the Alphart family, being restaurant owners as well as winemakers is double the work and very demanding.
The tradition of the Heurigen – an Austrian wine tavern where winemakers sell their own wines – is a very old one that celebrates its 230th birthday this year. The tradition allows a winemaker to sell their own wines at a good price – typically €10.00 ($12.30) to €20.00 – giving the consumer a bargain and the producer easy, direct and rapid sales. Many wine regions in the world could only dream of such a situation.
At a glance
Close to the Austrian capital of Vienna, and bordered by two highways – one going to Graz and Italy, the other to Salzburg – the Thermenregion stretches from the edge of the Wienerwald forest to the south; it sits in the south of Niederösterreich, in Austria’s east. It became an official region as part of the 1985 wine law, when the districts of Gumpoldskirchen and Bad Vöslau were amalgamated. Vines – and baths built around the thermal, sulphuric waters of the region – have existed here for more than 2,000 years, thanks to the Romans. The vineyards were developed by the Cistercian monks during the Middle Ages; much vineyard land still belongs to the Church, which rents it to producers.
The region’s 2,196 ha co-exist with an industrial zone down in the valley (giving it proximity to wealthy drinkers), but also stretch across slopes, creating a charming landscape. The northern village of Gumpoldskirchen is so pleasant that it attracts many Viennese workers, who either live here and take the 25 minute train to the city, or who come simply to walk, jog or bicycle through the vineyards, or for lunch or dinner in the Heuriger. They take cases from the wineries away with them, or bottles of local wine from Freigut Thallern’s wine shop.
Thermenregion has many other advantages besides proximity to Vienna, including being the only Austrian region which offers white wines from the north, red wines from the south, and even sweet wines.
It can also boast of four autochthonous varieties: the white grapes Rotgipfler and Zierfandler, and the red grapes St Laurent and Zweigelt. Other varieties that do well in this region include Riesling, Grüner Veltliner, Chardonnay and Pinot Blanc, along with Blauer Portugieser, Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon. Pinot Noir does particularly well, planted with clones from Switzerland, Germany and France; some producers even like to compare their region to Burgundy. “It’s the first vineyard in Austria where it was planted, originally brought by the Cluny monks in the twelfth century,” says Johannes Gebeshuber of Weingut Spaetrot Gebeshuber, “so it’s a long tradition!”
Today, the Thermenregion has about 900 producers, of which around 60 sell wines both domestically and internationally. Some of the wineries focus more on white varieties, others on reds; the wineries situated in the south have vines around the Anninger, the 675-metre hill that dominates Gumpoldskirchen and where soils and climate are suitable for the white Rotgipfler and Zierfandler grapes.
Those two varieties make Thermenregion fascinating, although they represent not more than 100 ha each. Rotgipfler is a natural crossing of Savagnin and Roter Veltliner; the ‘rot’ in the name comes from the reddish-bronze vine shoots. “It grows really well here. We can do a lot with it,” says Gustav Krug of Weingut Gustav Krug. “But it’s a variety that doesn’t forgive any mistake. In the cellar, it’s hard to press; that’s why we use cold maceration before pressing.” For Bernhard Stadlmann of Weingut Stadlmann, the varietal is incomparable: “It’s aromatic, spicy and round.”
Zierfandler is also a natural crossing of Roter Veltliner and a relative of Savagnin, and is alternatively known as ‘Spaetrot’ because of its reddish-coloured grapes. Its yields are irregular, but create powerful and high-in-extract wines, with notes of honey and something of an oily style. Both Rotfgipfler and Zierfandler offer enough acidity to make impressive, long-lasting sweet wines; some producers blend them together to make more complex wines.
The St Laurent gape is mainly found in Thermenregion. Its plantings have increased, and today total 778 ha. It has stronger fruit than the Pinot Noir, and can taste a little like Syrah in warmer vintages and like Pinot Noir in cooler years. According to Louis Jarasviroj from Circo Vino, which imports Johanneshof Reinisch to the US: “St Laurent is really the star of this terroir.”
Zweigelt is another Austrian variety that’s well represented here with 276 ha, that gives easy-to-drink reds with a light colour and sherry aromas.
New generation
The wines of Gumpoldskirchen have been famous for centuries, with vineyards co-planted to a number of varieties. At the beginning of the 20th century, many wines were consumed by workers in the area, particularly in the 1960s and 1970s. Heinrich Hartl III, from the Weingut of the same name, describes these golden industrial times: “My grandfather and father were making a lot of money with people coming from five a.m. to midnight and drinking loads of wine.”
But after the wine scandal in 1985, the Austrian wine industry had to start everything from scratch again. Today, Hartl – the seventh generation of his family – still sells 10,000 1-L bottles for €2.40 (compared to 60 000 L in 2000, at €2.20) and serves ‘Spritze’, a mix of wine and sparkling water, to his old clients. His main business, though, is now quality-oriented exports – 90,000 bottles per year. “I make more or less the same turnover as my father did and certainly a smaller income,” he says, adding that inputs, employees, taxes, bottles and other production costs mean making wine is much more expensive than it used to be.
Most of the wineries have been taken over by a new dynamic generation who haven’t turned their back on the countryside or the hard work to be done in the vineyards, yet who have taken a new direction from their parents – not that they had a choice. Thermenregion is under pressure, with falling volumes, vineyard areas, yields and wineries. Housing pressure is high; a planted vineyard can cost between €2.00 and €5.00 a square metre, up to €10.00 on the best slopes, where land will go for €500.00 a square metre in a building zone.
In Tattendorf, in the south, there used to be 60 wineries. Today there are 25, half of them organic. Only 14 Heurigen remain. The fierce competition is pushing producers to increase their exports. “The business goes on attracting some newcomers thanks to the Heurigen system,” says Johannes Reinisch of Johanneshof Reinisch. “But we can’t count only on the local market – we need to sell elsewhere.”
Reinisch, the winemaker, has taken over the family business with his two brothers, Michael (bookkeeper and export manager) and Christian (vineyards). They produce mainly reds, thanks to the light soil that’s suitable for St Laurent and the Burgundy varieties.
Alphart sells also across Austria and abroad, as does Biegler, Stadlmann (who exports 70%), and Spaetrot Gebeshuber, who is present in several markets. Even Krug, who has a strong local market thanks to his restaurant in the historic centre of Gumpoldskirchen, exports to countries such as Switzerland, Bulgaria and the Netherlands.
Linn Rothstein, from Merry Widows Wine in the UK, has sold Heinrich Hartl’s wines for seven years and says that consumers are generally becoming more open and enthusiastic about Austrian wine.
“If people do not know of the Thermenregion, they still know where Vienna is and there are always people who take their holidays in Austria who are either knowledgeable, or who return, wanting to know more,” she says.
No DAC for now
Still the wines are not easy to promote. Although the wines of Gumpoldskirchen were the most exported Austrian wines of the 1960s and 1970s, today the focus is firmly on the crisp ‘green’ Grüner Veltliner thanks to the tremendous promotional efforts of the Austrian Wine Marketing Board. And it’s Wachau and Burgenland that are the names most recognised by international wine lovers.
Rothstein admits she markets Heinrich Hartl’s wines as Austrian, rather than as Thermenregion. “Then people taste it and realise its quality, and then we describe to them where it’s from,” she says. “We are hoping that in a few more years, people will specifically ask for a Pinot Noir or St Laurent from the Thermenregion, as its reputation grows.”
Several options have been discussed. One is to rename Thermenregion ‘Gumpoldskirchen’. Unfortunately, while the town itself is beautiful, it’s a hard name to remember or pronounce.
Perhaps a DAC classification – the Districtus Austriae Controllatus designation, used since the 2002 vintage – is required, as used by Kremstal, Kamptal, Traisental and Weinviertel in Niederösterreich (Wachau is not a DAC and does not wish to be).
“A DAC is necessary for the long term,” says Hartl, “but today, 90% of the wineries are not interested in the concept or don’t even understand it.” He says that, in any case, it’s varieties that resonate more strongly than regional names. “A seminar abroad is usually on the Grüner Veltliner, not on the DACs,” he points out.
So should the wineries market the region by using their unique Rotgipfler, Zierfandler and St Laurent grapes? Unfortunately, there simply isn’t enough material for large promotions.
Perhaps, in the end, it will come down to people from other countries enjoying the unique atmosphere and wines of the Heuriger, and wanting to experience those tastes when they get back home again.
