Austria, one of the wine world's best-kept secrets, tasted along the Danube

Yes, and it is still one of the wine world’s best-kept secrets. You get Gruner Veltliner grown almost nowhere else, the steep Danube terraces of the Wachau, vineyards inside Vienna, and Burgenland reds most travellers have never tasted.

Gruner Veltliner is Austria’s signature white grape, native to the country and grown almost nowhere else at this quality. It tastes of white pepper, green apple and stone, is dry and fresh, and is the backbone of the Wachau, Kremstal and Kamptal along the Danube.

A Heuriger is an Austrian wine tavern where a winemaker serves only his own wine, often in a garden with a Brettljause board of cured meats and cheese. The tradition goes back to an imperial edict of 1784 that let growers sell their young wine directly, and Vienna’s taverns pour from the city’s own hills.

Yes. Vienna is the only world capital with significant commercial vineyards inside its city limits. You can walk the vines in the hills above the city, then drink Wiener Gemischter Satz, a field blend of several grapes grown and pressed together, at a Heuriger tavern nearby.

The Wachau, a UNESCO valley of steep stone terraces along the Danube, is the headline, famous for Gruner Veltliner and Riesling. Nearby Kremstal and Kamptal grow the same grapes, Vienna has its own city vineyards, and Burgenland to the east makes the reds, so a good trip links several of them along the river.

Spring, from April to May, brings blossom and green terraces, while September and October add the harvest and are the best all-round time to come. High summer is warm and busy. The months outside harvest are quiet and local, with the cellars at their most atmospheric.

5 to 8 days. That lets you start in Vienna and its city vineyards, spend real time in the Wachau with side visits to Kremstal or Kamptal, and reach the Burgenland reds by Lake Neusiedl, without rushing.

Vienna is the natural base, with the Wachau about an hour and a quarter away by road. On our trips you never drive. We handle the car and routing, open private cellars along the Danube, and can start the wine story in Vienna before heading up the valley.

In Burgenland, east of Vienna around Lake Neusiedl, the home of Austria’s reds. Blaufrankisch is spicy and firm, Zweigelt soft and fruity, and both are barely exported, so they surprise even seasoned collectors. We include a Burgenland red-wine estate as the payoff most visitors miss.

Gemischter Satz is a field blend where several grape varieties are grown together in one vineyard, then picked and pressed together, a Viennese tradition found almost nowhere else. Wiener Gemischter Satz became Austria’s first appellation based on a method rather than a single grape, and you drink it young in a Heuriger.

Yes. The range runs from a Heuriger Brettljause board of cured meats and cheese, to Marillenknodel dumplings made with Danube apricots, to Wiener schnitzel and goulash, up to riverside dining at Michelin level. A family apricot distillery and a market-to-table cooking day round it out.

They are narrow stone-walled terraces cut into steep primary rock, dropping toward the Danube. Gruner Veltliner grows on the gentler loess lower down, Riesling on the hardest rock above, and the mix of warm sun and cool river wind is what makes the wines so precise. The work on the steepest slopes is still done by hand.

They are the Wachau’s own ripeness ladder for dry white wine. Steinfeder is the lightest and freshest, Federspiel is medium-bodied and elegant, and Smaragd is the ripest and fullest, from grapes left longest on the vine. It is a style ladder rather than a price tier, and it is unique to the Wachau.

All three sit along the Danube and grow Gruner Veltliner and Riesling. The Wachau has the steepest, most dramatic terraces and the best-known estates, while neighbouring Kremstal and Kamptal are gentler and quieter, with excellent growers and a seasonal-produce table. A good trip links them, since they are only a short drive apart.

You can day-trip the Wachau from Vienna, but staying at least one night in the valley lets you taste in the evening, walk the terraces early, and reach Kremstal and Kamptal without rushing. Our trips base you along the Danube and use Vienna at the start or the end.

Yes. On our trips the cellars are opened privately, and you often taste with the winemaker or the family, including single-vineyard wines and older vintages that casual visitors rarely see. Those relationships took Guy years to build, one harvest at a time.

Around Lake Neusiedl in Burgenland, growers make lusciously sweet wines the locals call liquid gold, where noble rot concentrates the fruit while fresh acidity keeps them in balance. They are often poured at the end of a Burgenland red-wine tasting.

Marillenknodel is a dumpling wrapped around a whole apricot, made with the Danube apricots the locals call Marille, then rolled in buttery crumbs. It is a Wachau summer classic, and a family apricot distillery on the river turns the same fruit into spirit.