Viticulture has a two-thousand year (cultural) history along the Danube. The Celts and Illyrians are believed to have pressed wine from wild grapes long before then, but systematic cultivation began at the time of the Roman occupation. The Bavarian dioceses and monasteries built the first terraced vineyards in the Wachau in the Middle Ages. Viticulture reached a heyday at the time, with large parts of today's Vienna planted in grapevines and the monasteries exporting their already in-depth knowledge of wine into the Danube region - a development that has left visible and delectable traces down to the present day.
Experiencing Wine
Along the Danube, you can immerse yourself deeply in wine history, say, by visiting historical wine cellars like the one at Klosterneuburg Monastery or at Nikolaihof in Mautern, which are among the oldest in the land. An experience for all the senses lies in store for you at Weinerlebniswelt wein.sinn, a unique wine experience created by the wine maker cooperative Winzer Krems. At multiple stations, you find out all kinds of fascinating things about the wine process, from vineyard to wine cellar - presented with modern audiovisual techniques.
Sample outstanding wines on a wine cellar tour with wine tasting in the unique baroque Kellerschlössel. Your host is the largest wine estate in the Wachau: Domäne Wachau.
In Langenlois, a town that produces more wine than any other in Austria, you can visit the LOISIUM for a unique wine experience. Here, modern architecture by star architect Steven Holl meets a 900-year old labyrinth of wine cellars.
The biggest memorial to wine in Austria is also free of charge and best experienced on a boat ride through the Wachau: the natural stone terraces in the Wachau made of typical dry stone walls.
