One of the things we had to do in Vienna during the lovely week we spent there was to go on a Vienna Heurigen. Vienna, and specifically the suburb of Grinzing is a wonderful place to experience heuriger. The word heuriger means “this year” in German. Yep! This year as in wine produced last harvest.
Our search for young wine tasting at a local heuriger (tavern) led us on an at first fruitless or wineless endeavor. We chose the DIY route since we were staying in a central location close to the metro. We had just done organized tours in Porto so we wanted a change. It sounded easy enough to do. Famous last words! 🙂
[the_ad id=”13767″]
Heurige Adventure in Grinzing Vienna:
Heuriger Vienna:
Since the 18th century when the then ruler, Emperor Joseph II allowed wine growers to sell their own cultivated wine and juices in their establishments, heurigen is a very popular tradition in Vienna. It is also very easy to do as the wineries are within city limits. We set out on our hunt to visit one of these Vienna heuriger tavern wine tasting.
Getting from Vienna to Grinzig:
It took us just under 40 minutes to get from Vienna city center to Grinzing. This was accomplished by taking the U4 metro (the station closest to us) to the last stop, which was Heiligenstadt S+U and then transferred to the Bus 38 which dropped us off in Grinzing. Walking around, you can already find some heurigers on the main street. That’s where l made the first mistake. Getting off the bus too soon.
There are about 25 heurigers in Grinzing. I had read about a particular one that had the most amazing views. You were literally sitting in the middle of the vineyard itself and had an amazing view of Vienna at your feet. How could l not want to experience that!
[the_ad id=”13784″]
So, of course, l poo pooed the idea of going to one of the first places we saw. Google maps informed me we were just over a mile from the heuriger l wanted which didn’t sound so bad, so we set off. It became pretty clear that we had to work hard for this wine. The whole journey was uphill! Up the freaking hill that never ended, all curvy, barely enough space for a car. We saw no one. It was hot and humid and we consoled ourselves by saying we would really enjoy the wine.
The views were definitely beautiful the higher we got. Federico almost cried when he went to get his cell phone from the backpack to take a picture and found the bottle of water he had put in there just before we left the AirBnB!
Grinzing Vienna: Uphill!
We saw no cars on our up the hill in Grinzing, save for one and she was just making a u-turn (probably lost) and her tires were mere inches from our feet. We were going the right way still according to Google map. Finally, it said 350 feet and we were elated. Miraculously, we saw 2 older gentlemen walking down the hill, so l asked if they saw this winery up there. They said yep! they did!!! Woohoo! Looking back, l’m pretty sure those guys thought we deserved to suffer like they did to reach the top! :-). They could have saved us some more walking.
[the_ad id=”13783″]
Related Post: A week in Vienna
We got to the heuriger drenched, not “perspiring”, we were sweating bullets. It was a hot and muggy day! We heard music from inside and l was ready to finally taste wine. Federico opened the grand door and there was some sort of reception room with a couch, so we sat for a couple of minutes so l could stop my panting and fan myself. Once ready, he opened the door leading to the backyard, and lo and behold..zip! nada…no people, just a cleaning woman doing her chores with loud music on who didn’t hear us come in.
Turns out, it was no longer open to the public and had gone back to being just a regular house! F**K!!! I was stunned to say the least. Federico tried to tell me on the way up that it was just too quiet, but my stubbornness prevailed. Note to self: “Check the dates blog posts are written and double check that the information is still current”. 🙂
[the_ad id=”14098″]
Heurigen in Vienna at last! (Tasting Young Wine):
It wasn’t so bad walking back down. We were now super hungry and thirsty. We ended up at one of the very first heuriger places we had seen called Zum Martin Sepp :-). The heurigers are very airy, all wooden benches and tables, with trees offering shade. Our wine tasting consisted of 5 young wine varieties, from white to red. It’s served on a tray and tells you in what order to taste them. It also gives a little information about each wine (in German and English).
[the_ad id=”14098″]
Simple food is what it’s all about, cheese and cold cuts galore. We had our heurige a la carte as opposed to the buffet and it was absolutely wonderfully delicious (and not just because we were famished). There was no live music when we visited, but l understand that it is a common occurrence in most taverns.It’s amazing that Vienna is a wine-growing capital city. You can indulge all you want and be back in the city in minutes, which is pretty cool. We liked one type of the wine so much, we bought a bottle to drink later. Here’s Rick Steves doing a heurigen, When in Rome…
If you’re on a Vienna vacation, you should definitely make a heurige tour part of your Vienna itinerary must-do. It was fun, even with our mishap, but hey.. I can tell you where the Namibia embassy in Vienna is :-). We highly recommend doing young wine tasting in Vienna.
[the_ad id=”14099″]
Heurigen in Vienna was a wonderful and memorable way to finish out the week before we headed back to Prague, with me hoping the city would grow on me despite my first Prague impressions . Prosit!
Pin it for later if you like it:
Have you been to Vienna? If so, did you experience a heurige and did you like “young” wine, or are you a wine snob?
[the_ad id=”13768″]
What a beautiful town! Truly spectacular! You had your fair share of adventure there and I smiled imagining Federico’s face when he found that bottle of water 🙂 I was also extremely surprised to see him fall behind for once, haha. And even though the thing you were looking for wasn’t up there, at least you had the views!
You can see in that final photo that you are tired, but as long as you’re happy… that’s all that matters! Being tired is part of the deal 😀
It really is a lovely town, so cute and looked just like you were reading it in a book. Oh, he was thrilled, fist pumping and excited. I didn’t even see him put the water in there otherwise l would have said something. What a lovely surprise! Yeah..it’s hard to believe he was ever behind me at any point! You can just imagine how hot it was then, and the humidity was off the charts. The views were lovely and l was so looking forward to wine and that. I was happy to finally sit and enjoy some wine, so yep..it all worked out in the end.
Kemkem looks like a fun time! I hear you on traveler’s fatigue too. Whether it is the climate or doing stuff on limited sleep, sometimes it is an adventure to get through the day without getting worn down. 100% of the time though it is always worth it for me. You guys had a blast in a gorgeous spot.
It was a fun time…and the tiredness went away once we found a place to sit and relax in. It was an adventure, and l would only think about repeating it in the Fall maybe..with cooler temperatures :-). It turned out well, as travelers, we always have to be ready to make adjustments.
We will be in Vienna this October and we will surely do a heuriger your…especially young wine tasting!
Nice! I’m sure you’ll have a great time 🙂
You crack me up. I can’t remember the times I have lead us in the wrong direction with the expectation of something fabulous, only to here Malcolm say, “I told you so.” A good meal and a bottle of wine makes even a miss-adventure memorable.
Hahah!!! And Federico will find a way to bring it up till l say “you’re right”..which pisses me off of course. He goes along with it sometimes to make keep the peace, but it always seems the “wrong” times he picks to be quiet…haha!!! Yep..a good meal and a bottle of wine helped make it better.
My Vienna visit didn’t include these, but we did experience a wonderful Oktoberfest event. (OK. It was staged for us medical types at the convention.)
That must have been very cool to see :-). We might just have to go back!!!
Heurigen in Vienna sounds and looks great. Perhaps enjoyed even more after the long fruitless climb up the hill. (Finding the place closed after a hot uphill walk sounds like something that would happen to me!)
Oh I am so happy to hear that it could happen to someone else too. I checked the post afterwards and it was written in 2013! (date carefully hidden). Heurigen is definitely worth doing doing in Vienna. I really hope we get back there at some point. I feel like we have unfinished business with Vienna, like the Opera :-). Insane prices though, like €169 for the nosebleed section..so it might remain just that.
The houses look straight out of a fairy tale, the streets are so charming, and I can’t tell you how tempted I am to say … “What a beautiful walk!” 😁 (Sure, uphill both ways, right?) Loved the photo of you in front of the wine glasses. Let me guess – was this the second round of the wine tasting? Anita
Nooo!!! Don’t say that! You would be mocking me :-). Imagine, that was before the first tasting even. I was completely fatigued, hot flashes, thirsty, hungry..you name it! I did not want a picture.. 🙂 . After the second round, I was a lot chipper..haha! I will leave the hiking up to you :-).
It looks like such a beautiful place for a hike. Well done for going for it…nice reward at the end. You look so relaxed on that photo 🙂
Thanks Gilda! It was a nice reward after that unexpected hike. The food was amazing for sure :-).
Best piece of advice ever: <> Still, it sounds like you managed to salvage the day and burned off the calories to enjoy your lunch wine tasting.
Yep! We definitely burned some calories. Unintentionally, yes..but turned out to be a good thing. Lemonade from lemons and all that :-).
Vienna is still on my wish list. Now that I know there is wine being produced in the area, I have more of an incentive to get there! Thx for the interesting post about the Grinzing adventure.
It is definitely worthy of a visit. It’s amazing that there are so many vineyards just mere minutes away from the center. Grinding is so quaint and it was so cool being there. Hope you get there soon.
Haha sorry but that was hilarious, you should have realised something was off by the lack of cars or other visitors:-). To be honest I’m just the same, I would have carried on too! I’ve heard not so great things about ethnic minorities not being accepted on Austria so your experience is refreshingly welcome. I would have been in heaven with the wine, open spaces, scenery & yummy food!
Yeah.. I can totally picture you laughing. I could laugh later on, but it was so unfunny when it was unfolding. I am the most stubborn person sometimes and could save myself plenty of heartaches sometimes. If Federico had said anything, I would have bitten his head off too. I am hopeless with maps and such and yeah.. I should have known..oh, I should have known. You should have seen that woman’s face when she found us in the house.. :-). I’m guessing most people stay in the very center maybe, but we sure loads and loads of minorities. I will write a roundup post at some time in the near future, but it was nice to see it no boringly bland :-).