Burgenland wine weekend: two days in Austria's best wine region

Austria makes very good red wine. This is not a controversial statement among wine professionals but it remains underreported in the English-language travel world, which tends to think of Austria as a Grüner Veltliner and Riesling country and stops there. Burgenland, the thin eastern province that borders Hungary along the Neusiedlersee lake, produces Blaufränkisch, Zweigelt, and Saint-Laurent in the red category — and in the hands of the best producers in the Eisenberg, Lutzmannsburg, and Deutsch Schützen areas, Blaufränkisch is a serious wine that improves significantly with age.

I went for two days in early September, which is — improbably — one of the best moments: the harvest is beginning, the vineyards are turning, the lake is still warm enough for swimming, and the crowds of the August summer have thinned.

Getting there

Train from Vienna: S1 or REX from Wien Meidling or Wien Hbf to Eisenstadt (1 hour) or Neusiedl am See (50 minutes). Austrian Federal Railways (OBB) runs regular departures throughout the day. Eisenstadt, the capital of Burgenland, is the logical base.

By car: A3 motorway from Vienna, 50 km, 40 minutes. A car makes the wine route significantly more flexible — many of the best small producers are in villages not served by frequent trains.

Day one: Eisenstadt and the Haydn connection

Esterhazy Palace (Esterházy Platz 1, Eisenstadt) — the Baroque palace of the Esterházy family, one of Hungary’s greatest aristocratic dynasties, who moved their court to Eisenstadt when Hungary was under Ottoman control. The Schloss Esterházy: In the Steps of Joseph Haydn ticket gives access to the Haydnsaal, the concert hall where Joseph Haydn (court composer to the Esterházy family from 1761 to 1790) performed and conducted for 29 years. The acoustic in the Haydnsaal is extraordinary — small, wood-panelled, alive. Haydn composed most of his 104 symphonies for performance in this room.

Haydn’s house: The Haydngasse museum (Haydngasse 21) — the small house where Haydn lived in Eisenstadt. Period furnishings, instruments of the era, the composing room. Modest but good.

Lunch: The Burgenland-specific restaurant tradition is strongly influenced by Hungarian cooking — pörkölt (beef stew similar to goulash), Lángosch (the Austrian version of lángos, here a Burgenland staple), and particularly the local Pannonian fish from the Neusiedlersee: pike-perch (Zander) served with dill and cream. The Restaurant Taubenkobel in Schützen am Gebirge (20 km from Eisenstadt) is the reference address — Austrian Michelin-level cooking with Burgenland ingredients. For something simpler: the Weingut restaurants along the Ruster Ausbruch route east of Eisenstadt.

Afternoon: Drive or train to Rust (30 minutes east of Eisenstadt) — the small town on the western shore of the Neusiedlersee, famous for its stork nests (Rust has more stork nests per capita than almost anywhere in Europe; in September the storks have left, but the nests remain on the chimney tops) and for Ruster Ausbruch, the dessert wine category unique to Rust. Ruster Ausbruch is made from botrytised (noble rot) grapes, similar to Sauternes or Tokaj in method, specific to the Rust microclimate around the lake.

Walk the old town, visit the Rathaus (the oldest continuously used town hall in Austria), and taste Ruster Ausbruch at the cellars of Feiler-Artinger (Hauptstrasse 3) or Wenzel (Hauptstrasse 19).

Evening: The Neusiedlersee at sunset is a peculiar spectacle — the lake is never more than 1.8 metres deep and lies on a flat plain at 115 metres altitude, so the horizon is vast and the sky enormous. The reed beds (the largest in Central Europe outside the Danube Delta) are turning brown in early September. Dinner at a Heuriger in one of the lakeside villages: Mörbisch or Oggau for the quietest settings.

Day two: the Blaufränkisch villages

The real Burgenland wine country is not around the lake — it is further south, in the hills of the Mittelburgenland (around Deutschkreutz and Horitschon) and the Südburgenland (around Eisenberg and Deutsch Schützen). These are 60–90 km south of Vienna, accessible by car, not served by useful train connections.

Weingut Moric (in Lutzmannsburg area) — Paul Achs’s estate, one of the most important in the Mittelburgenland appellation, making old-vine Blaufränkisch that needs 5–10 years before it opens. Not always open to casual visitors; booking in advance is essential.

Weingut Wachter-Wiesler (Deutsch Schützen, Südburgenland) — the estate that has done most to publicise Eisenberg as an appellation. Open for visits in September during the harvest. The Blaufränkisch Ried Eisenberg is the wine that proves the Südburgenland case.

The practical alternative: The half-day countryside wine tour from Vienna with a meal covers the Burgenland wine areas with transport included — the correct choice if you are not renting a car. Wine tourism infrastructure in the Südburgenland is still developing; having a guide who knows the producers saves significant time.

The wine itself

Blaufränkisch is a grape that produces dark, tannic, structured reds with high acidity — more similar in character to Nebbiolo or Sangiovese than to Cabernet Sauvignon. Young Blaufränkisch is often austere; at 7–10 years it opens into something compelling. The Eisenberg and Lutzmannsburg terroirs produce the most complex examples.

Zweigelt is the crossing of Blaufränkisch and Saint-Laurent created in 1922 by Fritz Zweigelt. It is Austria’s most planted red grape — more approachable and fruity than pure Blaufränkisch, the everyday red of Burgenland, good with the pork and game dishes of the region.

White wines: The Burgenland also produces excellent whites — particularly Welschriesling and Chardonnay from the lakeside areas. The Neusiedlersee microclimate (morning mist from the lake, warm dry afternoons) creates ideal conditions for botrytised dessert wines and concentrated whites.

Logistics

Eisenstadt has several hotels and B&Bs. The lakeside villages (Rust, Mörbisch) have smaller guesthouses. September is not the most touristed month — booking a week ahead is sufficient. The Burgenland wine route is not set up for mass tourism in the way the Wachau is; this is part of its appeal.