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AUSTRIA
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Wieninger
WINERY OVERVIEW
Though Vienna is known for patisseries, opera, music, and glistening pedestrian shopping
plazas, the city also maintains a viticultural focus. The Wieninger winery was founded as part
of the traditional Viennese heurigen (wine bar) system established in the 18th century. Born in
1966 to this wine-growing family, Fritz Wieninger represents the 4th generation in the current
house. Before him, his mother was the family winemaker – she was one of the first female
graduates of the enology program at Klosterneuberg (Europe’s oldest winemaking school).
Emerging from his own training in the wake of the Austrian Wine Scandal of 1985, Wieninger
spent a year working vineyards in California. It was during this time that he was convinced
that the future for Austria lay in making wines of great quality and distinction, and it was also
his inspiration for making top quality wines at his own home from classic Burgundian varieties.
Once returned from his travels, Wieninger took firm control of the family winery, and since
then, the arc of success has been swift: his first exports in 1989, Falstaff’s “Winzer der Jahr”
(Winemaker of the Year) in 1990, and the first exports to the USA in 1995.
LOCATION OF VINEYARD
The soils of the region’s vineyards are diverse, ranging from loess and sandy soils to limestone,
slate and chalk. The climate is regulated quite closely by the Danube River and influenced by
the winds of the Pannonian plains to the east. Average annual rainfall is about 26 inches, with
dangerous hail a constant threat to the city’s vintners.
Fritz has worked diligently to acquire and develop classical vineyard sites for Grüner and
Riesling, while also carefully cultivating red wine vineyards planted with both native and
international varieties. More recently he has led the revival of the Wiener Gemischter Satz
tradition – mixed vineyards were the traditional way to plant when the main concern for the
producer was to prevent crop damage or loss due to weather patterns or disease – and he has
excelled in the production of these multi-variety field blends.