Sunday, November 23
MB and I flew out of JFK around 7:00 pm on Saturday night. Austrian Air was very nice. The flight took 8 hours, plus the six hour difference put us in Vienna at 9:00 am local time on Sunday. A little dazed we went straight to the hotel, checked in and had breakfast. A few hours later we met up with Mike and Linda and Alex who had arrived a bit after us.
We did a little exploring around the city. Our hotel, the Karntnerhof, was in the first district which is the most central location. Vienna has a nice subway, as well as trollies, plus it's not too big so you can cover a lot of ground on foot without much trouble.
But we didn't have much steam the first day having not slept the night before. MB and I got in a few hours in the late afternoon, and then around 6:00 we went to our first winery. Fritz Wieninger was the man in charge. The wines bear his name, and surprisingly to me, the grapes come from vineyards inside the city limits.
More interestingly, the winery is also a rustic restaurant known as a heuriger. These are very popular around Vienna. A heuriger can only serve their own wines, and a limited selection of foods prescribed by the government. These are served buffet style. We had heard not to expect too much from the quality, but this turned out to be untrue, as the food was very good. Not fancy, but excellent. The winning dish was a nut crusted turkey over rucolla with a yogurt sauce.
Here are a just a few pictures of Fritz, Mike, and some of the wines we tasted. Very casual, completely non tourist start to the trip.
Monday, November 24
Monday morning we set out from the hotel to explore the city. Great stop at the Osterreichische Nationalbibliothek. We ate lunch at a Croatian fish restaurant called Kornat. Very nice. Then in the afternoon we went to the big, and old, ferris wheel. This is prominently featured in the movie The Third Man.
Dinner that night was at the excellent Walter Bauer restaurant (17 Sonnenfelsgasse.) This started the non stop pace of top notch food and wine. This one turned out to be our Vienna favorite (any disagreements?) Potato soup with white truffles was the highlight. Unfortunately no pictures. I grew more bold with the camera as the trip progressed.
Tuesday, November 25
Tuesday featured lunch at Steirereck. This is a very formal restaurant that every local agreed was the best restaurant in Vienna. We were scared that the food would be over the top on the richness scale, but this wasn't the case. In fact this wasn't the case anywhere we went in Austria. Great wines and food, although it was a little stuffy for my taste. Still, we managed to eat and drink a great deal. I didn't pull out the camera until the dessert course.
After lunch we walked for a bit. Luckily we came across the Hundertwasser house, something we had wanted to see. (What's the definitive Hundertwasser link? I'll just point to this for now.)
After the big dinner the night before and the large Steirereck lunch we went for a vegetarian dinner that night at Wrenkh. Nice, but nothing too memorable.
Wednesday, November 26
Wednesday morning we picked up our rental car and headed to the Wacau to visit my favorite wine maker: Knoll. The Austrians pronounce the 'k', so it sounds like ka-noll. As is typical of this river valley, the wines were white. Mostly Rieslings and Gruner Veltliners. Yummy beyond belief. A religious experience as is reflected on their over the top labels. I would scoff at such iconography coming from any other wine maker, but knoll is good enough to pull it off. A transformative experience, for sure.
After surviving the journey through the Knoll underworld we emerged with super human powers. Or maybe just a little drunk. Linda was taking it easy, thankfully, and safely guided us to our next destination: Rudi Pichler. There was a quick roadside lunch along the way, but I can't remember the name. But it was probably the place to eat if you're visiting Rudi.
He took us up to see some vineyards in his car. Amazingly steep terraced hillsides overlooking the Danube river. Except it was so foggy we couldn't see anything. I'm sure it was quite beautiful. They had just had major flooding in the area, and the workers were out rebuilding some of the stone work that had been damaged. A lot of the terraces were built in Roman times, so you could tell this was a serious flood to have caused so much havoc. But the vineyards were mostly high enough to have escaped. It didn't seem like it would damage production too badly.
After that we went back to his winery for a tasting. I think this is the only place where we didn't see the cellar.
Just for the record, there is another, arguably even more famous, Pichler in the area - FX Pichler (is that how it's spelled?) - but there is no family connection between the two.
Afterwards we thanked Rudi and headed a short distance back to Krems where we quickly checked into the Hotel Steigenberger. This was the most modern place we stayed. The internet connection in the lobby was greatly appreciated. Quick shower, and then back to Loibner for dinner with Emerich Knoll at the familly restaurant Loibnerhof. After drinking all the young Knolls in the morning, I couldn't wait to taste something older. This desire marked us throughout the trip, as the Austrians like to drink very young wines. We would order Reislings from the 80's and everybody would have our number right away. Wine geeks.
After dinner we convinced Emerich to sell us a few bottles of dessert wine to take back to the hotel, and consequently we got a final peak behind the scenes.
Thursday, November 28
In the morning we made an early exit from the Steigenberger Hotel. Mike had to spend some effort keeping the team on schedule, but he was up to the task. Three plus hour drive east, back past Vienna, and beyond into Styria for our 11:00 am appointment at the Gross winery. This was the most elaborate and modern facility we visited.
The Gross's were kind enough to book us a room at the Jaglhof, their friends hotel/restaurant located nearby. We drove up winding roads literally into the clouds to reach this place. Once again, we were assured that the views were remarkable. That night the Gross's joined us for dinner which was easily on par with all the other great meals. The '99 Gross Sauvignon Blanc we started with really impressed me, especially compared to the 2001's we had been tasting that afternoon. A few years really makes a difference. Most of the wine makers seemed a bit sad that their own country men were incapable of waiting. Lots of fish at this meal. Highlights included a lobster salmon "sandwich" (lobster chunks sandwiched between two pieces of salmon,) and a grapefruit lobster risotto. The chef gave me the recipie for the later: "First, make a great risotto...." Yeah, OK buddy, thanks for your secrets.
The rooms were very nice, and the fog so severe that it was quite romantic. Nothing beats a big meal followed by a 10 foot walk to your bed. That is living. In the morning, once again, we were up and off early to make the next appointment.
Friday, November 29
I finally got a driving stint in the Audi where much to the dismay of my back seat passengers I tried to make up some time we had lost that morning. We arrived in the lake country around Rust, right on the Hungarian boarder where we had a meeting with Paul Archs. After that he took us to a lovely lunch at the Blue Goose.
And then we headed back toward Vienna, stopping about 40 minutes outside the city at the highlight of the trip: the Taubenkobel. Run by a husband and wife team (he cooks, she designed and runs the place) this rustic farm house had been transformed into a literal heaven on earth. I can't say enough good things about this spot. If you travel to Vienna and don't leave at least one night for the Taubenkobel you are completely out of your mind. And not in a good way. These are people to whom assuring your pleasure is not a job, but a form of art. As if they would be personally depressed if you didn't have the time of your life. The staff was amazing. The food was out of this world. And the grounds and rooms all showed the hand of complete love and attention. Yes yes yes. For me this dinner was the best of the trip.
Saturday, November 30
Finally we got a long morning of sleep. MB and I emerged around 11:30. Breakfast ended at 11:00, but of course they held it open for us and then showered us with food. Incredible. They simply would not stop with the love.
Short drive back into Vienna where we all split up for a few hours more of museums and shopping. And then at 7:00 we went for our final meal at Altweinerhof restuarant. Mike said this is one of the top 100 wine lists in the world, and I have no reason to doubt him. Formal service again, like the Steirereck. Very nice room. The food was good, although we were so spoiled at this point that it didn't seem exceptional. The wines, however, were a different story.
Sunday December 1
Long flight back. Almost 10 hours. Completely amazing trip, yet I was still happy as usual to see NYC. There really is nothing like it in the world (at least that I've seen yet.) Back to work now. Thanks for coming along.