Learning German: der Heurige

Heurigen are wine taverns directly on the property of the vineyards whose wine they serve. They exist throughout the Eastern Austrian wine-producing region, and have become a veritable institution since Kaiser Josef II permitted vintners to begin selling their own wines in 1784. Today, there are two types of Heurigen: touristy places reachable by the tour buses full of Germans who come down to sample Austrian wine, and more rustic accommodations that often require a hike up a meandering mountain path that's too steep for the tour buses to travel. On the last day of my Mom's visit, I wanted to show her one of the latter. With a recommendation from Marie, the assistant director of my program, and a printed map from Wiener Linien (Wien's equivalent of the MBTA), we were ready to go.

After taking the U-Bahn to the last stop, we took a regional bus to the "town" of Kahlenbergerdorf (it's technically still part of Vienna, but pretty far out in the 19th district, so the rural Austrian land-use pattern of a village surrounded by fields applies.)

From there, we climbed through the vineyards to the top of a big hill. The path was paved, but too narrow for anything but the smallest cars. We wanted to complain and take breaks, but there was an Austrian couple in their 70s keeping pace with us, so we pressed onward.

View of the vineyards from the Heuriger. You can see the steeple of the church where we began hiking, and behind it, the Donau (Danube).

The Heuriger itself had just opened for the day. We took seats outside on the terrace, which had a beautiful view of the Donau, the vineyards, and Wien itself, and ordered up two glasses of Sturm. Sturm is new wine, just processed from the vineyards. It's bubbly, but not too sweet, and has a low alcohol content. The name "Sturm," though, means "storm," because the drink can have a stormy effect on you if you don't focus on the fact that, even though you can't taste the alcohol, you are indeed drinking wine. (I don't know how Sturm-drunken people climb down the mountain from the Heurigen; I certainly wouldn't trust myself to do so.)

We also ordered a small lunch of Kürbiscremesuppe (pumpkin creme soup), which includes not only a cream of pumpkin base, but also pumpkin seeds and pumpkin seed oil, a dark green savory oil that's a specialty of the Steiermark, and Gemüsestrudel (vegetable strudel) with creme sauce. Both were delicious, and not only because we had worked up appetites on our hike.

All in all, we spent about two hours in the Heuriger, eating, drinking, chatting, enjoying the view, and savoring our last day together for a few months.