On the Wine Pilgrimage

Wine tourism increased massively in the Western United States following the release of the 2004 film Sideways. Perhaps Filmfonds Wien should consider a collaboration with the Austrian wine community to encourage the same in the Wachau. The comparison with Napa and Sonoma is not too far a stretch: the Wachau is a similar distance from Vienna as those growing areas are North of San Francisco. And there are likewise plenty of excellent hotels, not least the Rosenkavalier-glamorous Hotel Schloss Dürnstein, as well as superb local food.

A little way up from the river, in the hills above Langelois, sits the village of Mollands. There are vines as far as the eye can see and if you venture out of the village, along the Altweg, you'll come across land owned by the Hager Matthias winery. The vinters have provided the perfect setting to sup their produce, with the Weinbeisserei offering not only an enviable list of vintage wines and new bottles just out, but also delicious organic salads, grown in the gardens behind a building which was designed by the Vienna-based architects ALBERTONI.

Perched on top of the original 1888 wine press, the dining room is as simple and elegant as the food they serve. I had a local sheep's cheese wrapped in Speck accompanied by a salad of fresh beets, leaves and flowers, all washed down with Hager Matthias's 2009 Alte Reben Grüner Veltliner. With food and drink as good as this and afternoons of late summer sun, it's amazing that the place isn't overrun with native incarnations of the Sideways crowd. But perhaps it's best, for those more intrepid wine pilgrims, that it isn't...

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